Darkness in the Void
by phoenix catcher
Summary: Harry/Wesley Crusher. Immortal:Harry. The Wizards made a mistake during their war. They obliterated their mortality and became something even more destructive. This is the story of the future humans' interactions with this new entity.
1. Stowaway

Darkness in the Void

Disclaimer; I own neither Harry Potter or the Star Trek Series. Any recognisable plot or character in this story I take no credit for. I do not make a profit from this story.

**Warnings; This story is SLASH. Any graphic scene will be marked as such so they can be skipped by those that wish to not read them.**

A/N; I honestly don't know where this story came from. I watched a couple of episodes of Star Trek; The Next Generation and suddenly had this pop up in my head so I put it down. There are a few chapters ready for posting and I'll put them up in the next couple of weeks but then they'll be a long delay before any more due to my work. Please enjoy.

Chapter 1; Stowaway

History would say that Earth was once the host to two humanoid races, one was the majority and lived unto this present day, giving their lives into their technology, reaching out into the Galaxy to explore and learn. The other, a smaller sect that grew to wield powers tied into the very energy of the universe wanted only to grow in power, to conquer and purify. The history books tell of a massive explosion of unreadable energy that left traces around the globe before a great cloud eclipsed the sun and then the second race was gone, never to be seen again.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**United Star Ship Enterprise – NCC-1701-D – 2365**

Captain Jean-Luc Picard stood beside his first officer, Commander William Riker, as they watched out the view screen as the SS Gavon slowly approached the vast cloud. It was barely visible except when it shifted and blotted out their view of this solar system's star. Ensign Crusher sat at the helm with Commander Data at sensors.

A face appeared on the screen wearing the uniform of the civilian fleet. "Captain Picard, we're ready to attempt an extraction."

"Do you yet have any idea what this is?" Picard asked.

"It seems to be some kind of gas cloud though our sensors cannot determine the exact substance. The gas seems to absorb all spectrums of electro-magnetic energy." The man told him.

"You'll have to forgive me for asking what that means." Picard told him with an amused smile.

The man smiled self-deprecatingly and shrugged. "We don't know yet. We'll have to get a sample before we can say for sure." The man paused before looking Picard dead in the eye. "But I can say this for certain, nobody on my crew has ever seen a cloud like this before. It has the same properties as a theoretical form of matter called Dark Matter."

"Where have I heard that before?" Picard asked.

"Probably from about a thousand sources. It's every scientists dream to harness it." The man laughed. "Let's get this done so we can get some answers."

"You have my permission to begin." Picard told him as the senior officer.

"Releasing probe now." The man said after looking to the side. "Probe contact in five seconds. Contact." There was an instant's pause before the captain of the other ship vanished from the screen and it shut down to show the cloud and the SS Gavon magnified to a comfortable level.

"Captain." Data turned to look up at him. "I've lost contact with the probe."

"How?" Riker asked.

"It disappeared from sensors as soon as it passed through the outer edge of the cloud." Data told him. "Sensor's suggest it is within the cloud."

"Should we..." Picard began but was interrupted by a groan from his Councillor, Deanna Troi, from where she sat in her chair behind him. Picard and Riker turned to see her hands against the sides of her head. "Councillor?"

"It's..." She struggled out with. "It's angry."

"The cloud?" Riker gasped.

"Sir! It's on the move!" Ensign Crusher reported as he sat up straighter at the helm.

"Course?" Picard asked.

"It's heading straight for the Gavon." The young man, Crusher, told him without taking his eyes from the console in front of him.

"Hail them!" Picard shouted over his shoulder at the crewman at communications.

"No response." The man told him calmly but tried again without having to be told.

"The SS Gavon is attempting to evade." Data told him. The entire crew looked up at the scene in time to see the vast shadowy cloud ebb. It seemed to turn in on itself before tendrils shot out at the Gavon. Light blue shields flared in a bubble around the science ship but the three tendrils cut through them as if they weren't there. The tendrils twisted and drove up through the upper saucer shape pushing straight through without clear resistance. Debris flew into space as air vented. The tendrils retreated back into the cloud but to their horror the cloud still approached the listing SS Gavon.

"Damage report!" Picard ordered.

"The SS Gavon's life support, artificial gravity and main power is offline." Data reported emotionally. "The Warp core will enter critical mass in twenty seconds."

"Transporter Room." Riker glanced up at nothing in particular. "If you can get a lock on anybody on the Gavon beam them out immediately."

"_Understood, Sir."_ Came the disconnected voice of the engineer in the transporter room.

"They won't be able to get a lock through their shields." Riker sighed.

"I feel curiosity within that anger." Councillor Troi stood up in a single fluid movement and stood beside Picard with a frown on her face. As they watched the cloud slowly enveloped the SS Gavon, sinking through the shields which flickered and died.

"Core overload in five...four...three...two...one." Data informed them just before a bright white light exploded from the inside of the dark cloud, shining through it. As they watched the cloud ebbed and seemed to float away from the scattering shards on the Gavon.

"Sir. The cloud is on an intercept course." Crusher half turned to look up at his Captain and Executive Officer.

"Take us astern, Ensign. Full impulse." Picard ordered and Crusher's hands flew across the controls as he manipulated the controls.

"It's turning away." Crusher sighed in relief.

"Full stop." Picard ordered and sighed in his own relief. "Keep clear of the cloud but approach within transporter range of the debris. Scan for escape pods."

"No escape pods on sensors." Data told him. "However I think I can isolate the data recorder, and I believe I have a body on sensors. In the centre of the debris field."

Riker winced but addressed the transporter room again. "Transporter room. As soon as you are in range transport the body and data recorder."

"_Yes Sir."_ There was a pause. _"I'm sorry sir, but I didn't manage to lock onto any of the crew before she exploded. I lost sensor lock just after the shields collapsed."_

"It's okay, Crewman." Riker told him.

"I need to know what just happened, Number one." Picard told Riker. "I want a meeting of all department heads in one hour in the briefing room. Ensign Crusher, make sure to attend. I'm sure you have your own opinion on the matter."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Transporter room**

The Crewman walked up onto the raised transport ring and opened his tricorder to scan the body out of habit more than any hope it was alive. It was a shame as the person was clearly not much older than sixteen or seventeen. Definitely a child. He was wearing loose black trousers and a dark red thick jumper that hung loosely around his torso with a hooded section on the back in a style he'd never seen before. Bizarrely the boy wasn't wearing a t-shirt under the jumper or even shoes and socks.

His tricorder bleeped at him and he glanced down at the display before staggering backwards in shock. "Sickbay. Prepare to receive emergency transport!" He called into the air as he ran to his control console to transport the boy site-to-site across the ship. The boy vanished in the glittering image of the transporters and the crewman sagged onto his arms against the console.

"_Transporter room, report."_ Commander Riker's voice ordered.

"The body, sir." The crewman stammered. "The one I transported over from the Gavon. He's alive, sir."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Sick bay**

Picard walked into the Sickbay with Riker on one side and Councillor Troi on the other. Seeing this section empty they walked through it and into the intensive care unit where they found Doctor Beverley Crusher at a console opposite a bed with a older teenager lying on it. The boy was wearing only black cotton trousers but he looked perfectly comfortable, without a scratch on him.

"Doctor?"

"Jean-Luc." Doctor Crusher sighed and moved away from the console and to the boy's bedside. Deanna Troi moved to stand next to her while Picard and Riker stood on the other side. "I really don't know what to tell you. So far he seems the perfect human specimen. There's no sign of prolonged exposure to vacuum. No damage and his body temperature is good. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was just sleeping."

"If he's not sleeping what _is_ he doing?" Riker asked.

"He seems to be in a coma." Doctor Crusher told him.

"I sense nothing from him." Deanna Troi told them all. "I can sense he is there but not what he is feeling."

"Is that usual for coma patients?" Riker asked.

"I have never tried to read a comatose person before." Deanna admitted.

"It shouldn't be much different than somebody who is sleeping." Doctor Crusher told her.

"Yet I can sense a sleeping person's emotions." Deanna shrugged.

"There's a lot I want to know about this boy, Doctor Crusher." Picard told her. "Namely how he survived drifting through space."

"And how he survived a core breach without a scratch on him." Riker pointed out.

"Indeed." Picard nodded.

"Report to me in the briefing room in forty minutes, Doctor." Picard told her before taking his leave.

Picard headed out of the room with Riker to send a message to Starfleet Command.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Sickbay**

Harry studied the body he'd created in his old image, an image he'd barely associated with in however long it had been since the Dark Matter explosion had created the Multitude. It seemed wrong to him and so out of place. Like a cage but at least he didn't have to get in the cage just yet.

The human looking woman was standing over him again and reading off a little pad that looked like a computer screen. He'd learnt a lot in his time in the Multitude as he called it. For starters he knew better than to assume the woman was in fact a human. He'd explored other ships before when they'd come close and studied the aliens that flew them. The others thought he was strange for his overwhelming curiosity and care about what they called Lessers but what was the point of existing if you didn't learn?

"What is this?" She asked with a frown and reached out over him with a small sensor looking confused. "This is odd."

Well maybe Harry couldn't make his body perfectly human but it was close enough and trapping himself in a body without powers was simply boring. Harry drifted around the woman as an invisible cloud of Dark Matter ebbing and flowing over anything that he looked at. He was interrupted when a young man walked in. He looked about the same age that Harry had been when the explosion had happened, about seventeen, and he was wearing a grey uniform, whatever that meant.

"Mum." The other boy interrupted her and belied his relationship to her. "Commander Riker sent me to remind you about the meeting. He thought you might get distracted."

"Is it already that time, Wesley?" She frowned at him.

"We've got about two minutes." 'Wesley' smiled at her in amusement.

"Take a look at this, Wes." She handed him her little pad and the young man looked at it carefully.

"This can't be right." He shook his head. "It's like parts of him are missing."

"Except they were there before." She told her son.

"You mean he's disappearing?" Wesley's eyebrow's shot up.

"I don't know. According to this his heart isn't there but we can easily read his heart beat and blood pressure." She told him.

"Then there's a problem with the sensors?" Wesley asked. Harry ebbed happily, it had taken a lot of his reserves to create something as complicated as a human body and he'd been drained for a while but now his reserves of pure Dark Matter were building again. Draining all the Dark Matter from the inside of the ship and even the space around it. "Mum, we're really late now."

"Right." She nodded. "Computer, activate EMH."

"State the nature of the medical emergency." A new voice appeared and Harry ebbed straight through the man that suddenly appeared. So they could create people too and they could do it with just words.

"I need you to monitor this boy carefully. He's showing strange signs. Run a sensor diagnostic and report the results to me." She ordered the newly created man. "He's showing anomalous results."

"Understood." The man told her and moved to Harry's body. The woman and young man left the room and Harry flowed along through the corridors, filling whole sections with an invisible cloud. He was there but he'd long since learnt to cloak himself after seeing a nice green coloured ship cloak itself. It hadn't helped the ship hide from the Multitude but it helped Harry to explore the ships before they were destroyed by the Multitude. He followed Wesley and the doctor higher up in the ship until they entered a long room with numerous people in it.

"Doctor Crusher." A bald man at the end of the table greeted.

"Sorry we're late, Captain." She told him as she took a seat with her son at her side. "I found out something interesting about the boy."

"We waited for you." The Captain nodded before motioning to a rather pale man at his left side. "Data, why don't you start?"

Harry explored the man passing tendrils through him like he always did. He wasn't like the others here, he was a machine, just like the ship around them. He partly reminded him of another race that the Multitude had met. A race of part aliens and part machines. "We've decoded the data recorder successfully. The SS Gavon exploded from a Warp Core overload. An almost six hundred percent increase in power."

"How is that possible?" The Captain asked.

"I don't know, Sir." Data frowned. "It is possible that one of the cloud's tendrils passed through the Warp Core and the Warp Core fed from some form of energy in the cloud."

"That sounds rather vague for you, Data." Another man in red pointed out.

"I am dealing with rather incomplete information." Data told them.

"Only one theory seems to fit so far." Another human looking man spoke up as he leaned forwards onto the table. He was wearing a strange strip of metal around his eyes with what looked like gold patterning on the front. It was something Harry had never seen before so he flowed over the table to look at it closely. "Whoa, saw stars there for a moment." The man gasped out before he could speak again. Harry pulled back from the visor and the man shook his head. It was obviously technological and Harry had been able to mess with it to his satisfaction.

"Jordy?" A woman in yellow asked with a frown. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry." Jordy shook his head. "My visor blurred there. As I was saying the only explanation I can think of for all of this is some kind of energy absorbing matter. The Gavon's sensors tell us that the cloud absorbs all forms of electro-magnetic energy and I've only heard of one thing that fits so perfectly that even our sensors can't see it. Dark Matter, just like the Gavon thought."

"Research it." The Captain told him. "I want to know more about this form of matter and what it is capable of. More importantly I want to know why it attacked and destroyed the Gavon."

"What about the boy?" The man beside the captain asked.

"I've never seen anything like it." The doctor told them. "I don't see how anybody could have survived being in vacuum as long as he was. Especially without any sign of injury from the explosion."

"Nothing should have survived." Wesley spoke up. "I checked the sensor logs carefully, it wouldn't have mattered where you were on the ship. Even if he'd been blown out with the breaches he would have been caught in the warp core breach."

"What about DNA assays?" The Captain asked.

"I checked his DNA against the Federation Database without any luck. His DNA doesn't register but it is definitely human except he seems to be slightly more advanced. He has twenty seven distinct chromosomes, three more than normal." The Doctor told him. "There's also something else, while I was scanning him I noticed that the sensors detected a loss of organs, as if they'd just disappeared. I can't explain it. When I left him with the EMH he didn't have a heart but had a strong pulse and normal blood pressure."

"Sensor problem?" The Captain asked.

"I instructed the EMH to run a diagnostic." She told him.

"Is there anything else to go on at the moment?" The Captain asked.

"If I may, Sir." Data spoke up. "I believe there is a connection between the cloud and the rescued individual. The interference with the sensors is similar in both instances. It may be possible that he was altered by the cloud when he came into contact with it."

"To what end?" The Captain asked.

"Perhaps by chance alone." Data suggested. "It seems a logical conclusion."

"_EMH to Doctor Crusher."_ The voice of the created man announced.

"Go ahead." The Doctor spoke up.

"_The sensors are working correctly, Doctor." _The EMH reported. _"The sensor readouts on the patient concern me however. The sensors show no liver or skin on his left leg. Physical inspection states otherwise."_

"Thank you." The Doctor told the ceiling before looking at the Captain. "I really can't explain it. As far as our sensors go, he's vanishing."

"Well let's do everything we can to stop him from completely disappearing on us." The Captain declared. "What are the chances of him waking up?"

"As far as I can tell he's merely sleeping but I can't wake him. The normal stimulants don't seem to have any effect." Doctor Crusher sighed. "I'll let you know the moment he wakes up."

"Data, see if you can find anything in the database about any of this or any other reports of this cloud." The Captain ordered. "We're going to follow the cloud at a safe distance but it doesn't seem to be in a hurry. Sensors put it as heading to this solar systems sun but it'll be a few days before it reaches it."

Harry ebbed and flowed as the meeting broke up and slowly explored the ship, there were thousands of people on this ship, some with families. It was easily the most interesting ship Harry had ever encountered. He found a room where they created people and decided to take a look. A pair of humans were lounging on a balcony under the sun when mere minutes ago they'd been standing in a black room wearing swimsuits and towels. Now they were lying out in the sun chatting happily together.

They were alone except for two men that had appeared and were fanning them even though it wasn't particularly hot on the balcony. After a few minutes the crewman raised a bell and rung it and another man appeared through a door with a tray of glasses. Harry was intrigued, they'd managed to create a sunny balcony with servants out of nothing, something he'd never seen before on another ship.

"How do you do that?" Harry asked ebbing into a form they could see.

"Excuse me?" The man shot up in his chair and saw Harry standing at the foot of his lounger. Harry was powerful enough again to take a form like this even as his created body lay in the ship's sickbay. He'd absorbed enough of the ambient Dark Matter to be at his full abilities again.

"I was wondering how you created this place." Harry asked. The woman had sat up now as well, covering her chest quickly with a towel.

"Computer freeze program." The man ordered and as Harry watched the two fanning men and the waiter froze motionless.

"What kind of program are they?" Harry asked unaware that he was doing anything strange.

"Computer identify." The woman demanded.

"Unidentified." A voice told her.

"Computer intruder alert!" The man snapped and stood. "Holodeck two. End program!"

The scenery vanished and Harry felt it might be prudent to disappear too so he removed his imprint and became the cloud again. Two yellow uniformed men ran into the room with little objects in their hands. They were similar to what had been pointed at him before. It almost seemed to be custom when he greeted people.

Harry streamed from the room and decided to go pay his body a visit. He got distracted by a room full of children learning from an adult but he soon got bored of hearing about Earth history, though it did prove what he thought about the ship being from Earth. It was a shame it would all be gone soon like anybody else that tried to learn about the Multitude. When he got back to his body he discovered he had an audience. As he arrived he heard the Captain talking to the others.

"I saw the image myself. The holodeck recreated his very image." The Captain told them.

"Well I've only left him for a matter of ten minutes but Wesley hasn't left his side." Doctor Crusher told them. Harry glanced at the grey-uniformed ensign.

"I've been trying to find out why his body is slowly disappearing on sensors and I think Data is right." Wesley said. "I've compared the interference to the cloud and they match. I think this Dark Matter is slowly being absorbed into his body."

"Maybe it allowed him to survive vacuum." Riker agreed.

"But that doesn't explain how he got to the holodeck without us noticing." Doctor Crusher pointed out.

"Even so he's obviously more than meets the eye." Riker sighed. "We need to put him on twenty-four hour surveillance to be on the safe side."

"Agreed." The Captain nodded. "Keep me informed."

Harry watched them all leave and decided to linger with his body for the time being. Wesley sat on the bed next to his own for a few hours pouring over a pad as he ran scans over Harry's body.

"I feel sorry for you." Wesley suddenly spoke up in the emptiness of the room. "Maybe your family were on the SS Gavon. You seem to be my age so I guess I know how frustrating that is. To be on a ship but not be allowed to really do anything. My mum's the Chief Medical Officer on the Enterprise so I know it's hard to deal with some times."

Harry lingered around him for a while wondering whether to rejoin with his body just yet. To do so would trap him there until the body was destroyed. Dark Matter had a few limitations to it, if not many. He knew he'd have to eventually. "That's even if you were on that ship though I don't see any other way to it." Wesley went on. "Either way it'll be nice to have somebody my own age around for a change. Maybe you can come to the Academy with me in a month. You just have to wake up. Mum's always telling me that sometimes faith is necessary in medicine and I've read books about the past when they used to encourage talking to comatose people."

"Ensign Crusher." A Crewman with a weapon in his hands appeared through the door into the sickbay. "I've been ordered to watch him. Maybe you should get some sleep, Sir?"

Wesley sighed but nodded and put the pad down on the side before standing. "I'll talk to you tomorrow." Wesley told his new body before leaving. Harry tried to interact with the new man in the room without any luck so instead he decided to go exploring. He'd join with his body tomorrow but for now he wanted to go talk to people and learn about the ship while he was like a ghost.

Harry soon got bored when he realised that a lot of the crew were sleeping. The Bridge crew were boring, as were the engineers in the Warp Core. Nobody was walking through the halls and nobody was using those little holodeck rooms that created people to play with. He floated in the middle of one of the curved corridors with lots of doors before grinning. No matter which type of aliens they were, all ships reacted the same to certain sounds and Harry knew just how to get all the humans up and about again.

His voice, unused and eerie as it was, echoed in the corridors as he addressed the computer like they all seemed to do. "Computer, red alert."

All ships seemed to react in a similar way and Harry thought that maybe the ships liked to be on alert with all the people running around and doing things. Almost instantly red lights began flashing down the corridor and a sharp sounding alarm began waking all the thousands of sleeping people on the ship. Harry grinned and flowed down the corridor to find people to answer his questions.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Bridge**

Commander Riker snapped up from the command chair as the lights flashed red and the red alert sounded. "Report!"

"There's nothing on sensors." The crewman at sensor controls reported.

"The order was given on deck ten, section three." The security officer reported just as the Captain walked in.

"Report Number One." He demanded.

"We're not sure yet, Sir." Riker told him. "The alarm was triggered in deck ten, section three."

"Computer, identify danger." Picard ordered.

"_Unknown."_ The computer replied emotionlessly.

"Computer, who gave the order?" Picard pressed.

"_Unknown."_ The computer told them.

"Captain, all decks report on station." The security chief told them both. "Nobody is reporting any danger."

Councillor Troi came in through the turbo-lift with a bemused expression on her face. "Councillor?" Picard asked.

"I sense great amusement, Captain." Deanna told him. "With a touch of curiosity. A powerful mind. It overrides all other emotions on the ship at the moment. There is an entity on the ship not too different from the cloud."

"Could it have ordered the alert?" Picard asked her.

"The timing was exact." Deanna told him.

"Computer, stand down red alert. Ship wide." Picard announced. "This is Captain Picard, we seem to be playing host to an entity who finds amusement in waking the ship. Man all stations but rotate for sleep, keep an eye out for an intruder, especially one that matches our visitor in sickbay."

He was about to turn to give Riker the night off when a voice came back. _"Captain Picard, crewman Geoffrey. Some kid just asked me where I was going when I was on my way to my station. I thought I imagined it."_

"I can sense the entity, flitting about the ship, he's getting more curious." Deanna told him. "Almost as if he's trying to learn about us."

"Ship wide." Captain Picard announced again. "This is Captain Picard. This entity seems to be curious. By my orders you are to ignore him if he appears."

"Captain?" Deanna frowned. "Are you sure that is wise?"

"I won't let somebody terrorise my ship." Picard told her. "If he's curious he'll have to come to me for answers."

"He may not like that." Deanna warned him.

In the next few minutes eight more encounters were reported to the bridge, all where the boy had been ignored.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Engineering**

"They're all ignoring me." Harry declared as he appeared in the middle of the room. He'd realised this quite quickly after hearing the Captain order it. It had annoyed him because humans weren't fun if they didn't do anything. So he'd pestered a dozen or so before searching the ship for Wesley. The boy who had wanted to talk to him the night before. He'd found him working with the man with the funny visor near the ship's Warp Core. The two jumped as Harry appeared on the other side of the console to them. After a moment they went back to work. "But you wanted to talk to me before, Wesley."

"How do you know my name?" Wesley blurted.

"Wes!" Jordy hissed. "Captain's orders."

"I heard you talking to me. You have to talk to me or it'll be really boring." Harry countered but Wesley was going back to work and that hurt Harry. It was the first time in years he'd felt that emotion and it made him angrier then he'd been in all the time he could remember. He floated backwards through the railing and out over the space that separated the glowing blue Warp Core from the rest of engineering. His image vanished into a black cloud that darkened the room as it absorbed the flashing light and now everybody was looking at him.

Tendrils of angry black cloud reached out and his cloud grew to completely surround the Warp Core. But Harry was simply angry, they'd made him sad and he wanted them to be sorry for that. He wouldn't hurt them really but he did want to scare them so they wouldn't ignore him again just because one human told them too. It was a silly way to run things.

"_Warning, Warp Core overload imminent."_ The disembodied voice announced as red lights began flashing. _"Warning, Warp Core overload in two minutes."_

"_Engineering! Report!"_ Harry recognised Riker's voice this time.

"Sir, the image of the boy was here. We ignored him but he turned into a cloud just like the one in space. I think we angered it!" Jordy shouted as he tried to do something on the console. "It's flooding the Warp Core with Dark Matter!"

"_Prepare to jettison the Warp Core!"_ This time it was the Captain's voice.

"_Jordy! It's Deanna."_ Harry paid closer attention as the woman spoke. _"All I feel is hurt and anger. Try to talk to him."_

"Him?" Jordy gasped. "It's a cloud!"

"Please stop this!" Wesley was suddenly leaning on the railing only a foot from the edge of the cloud. "We're sorry about ignoring you but we don't understand you. We won't ignore you anymore but you need to stop or you'll kill us. You're just curious about us but doing this won't get you somebody to talk to."

Harry ebbed away from the Warp Core and the alarms stopped. Jordy sighed in relief but then cried out in shock as the cloud flooded forwards and enveloped Wesley so thickly that they couldn't see the boy anymore. Wesley stared in shock at the ebbing walls of black as they swirled around him and reached out a hand to touch it. The cloud wall ebbed away slightly before flooding forwards to brush around his hand sending tingles of energy up his arm.

In just a moment Harry pulled away from Wesley and vanished through a wall leaving a stunned group of Engineers to explain what had just happened.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Sickbay**

Harry's eyes opened and focused instantly on the ceiling of the Enterprise's sickbay. He shuttered his eyes as he got used to the sensation of touch, all along his back, and even the feeling of air across his skin. When he opened his eyes again it was to see a man in yellow standing beside his bed looking at him.

Harry lifted up a hand and touched the man's shoulder. In a moment the man's eyes rolled up into his head and he slumped to the ground. Being interrogated in the bed seemed boring to Harry so he pulled himself up from the bed and checked himself over. He'd forgotten shoes and socks but he liked feeling of the floor on the soles of his feet. He was still wearing the black trousers and the dark red hoodie and he felt warm enough even without the t-shirt underneath, another oversight on his behalf. He'd almost forgotten clothes altogether.

He quickly crossed the room and went out into the corridor and quickly turned the corner. He headed in a random direction and found himself in a darkened room with wide windows facing out into space. There were tables and chairs around the room and a bar against the other wall. Harry sat down at the bar and watched through the hole in the wall at a dark skinned woman with a large hat over her thick black hair. She bled power though well hidden. To Harry her power was obvious though, just like his was, just not as powerful. She could control Dark Matter.

She turned around and jumped as she spotted him sitting in the dark. "Computer, lights, half." The lights came on in a dull glow. "Well now, you'd be our unexpected guest. Appearing all over the ship."

"Am I?" Harry asked. "What are you doing?"

She came out into the room proper and leaned on the bar opposite him. "I was making a hot drink."

"Why?"

"Because I was thirsty." She told him with amusement.

"Why does it have to be hot?" Harry asked.

"You're definitely a strange one." She frowned. "You look human enough."

"So do you." Harry pointed out with a cheeky grin.

"I've been around for a while yet I've never come across a race like yours." She narrowed her eyes.

"What's your name?" Harry asked.

"What's yours?" She countered.

"Harry."

"An Earth name." She narrowed her eyes again. "So you were from that ship?"

"Was I?" Harry grinned unwilling to put all his cards on the table just yet. "You owe me a name."

"Guinan." She told him.

"You're not human." Harry prompted without losing his grin. "And you're older than me."

"You're a child, it's not hard to be older than you."

"You'd be surprised." Harry smirked, feeling more alive than he had in years with this bantering. "So what are you?"

"What are you?" She countered. Harry just continued to smile at her, not willing to give in this time. "I'm an El-Aurian."

"I'm sorry." Harry lost his grin. "I don't like the Borg much either, though they're more interesting than most."

This time Guinan stared at him carefully. "There's more to you than meets the eye."

"There's more to _you_ than meets the eye." Harry countered.

"What race are you?" She asked.

"I was human." Harry smiled at her.

"So they're right, the cloud changed you?" She asked.

"The Multitude doesn't change people, people change the Multitude. You could change the Multitude too if you let yourself." Harry pressed on relentlessly. "Others of your kind did."

"What...?"

"_Bridge to Guinan. Are you okay?" _That was Commander Riker's voice. _"Our guest walked out of Sickbay."_

"He's here." Guinan responded. "Being rather talkative, if not cryptic."

Harry grinned at her as she obviously realised it was his actual body here. _"Security is on its way."_

"I don't see any need to hurry, Commander Riker." Guinan told him.

"Oh, am I not dangerous?" Harry asked. "That's amusing."

"Amusing?" She asked.

"I like being amused, it's fun." Harry grinned. Before anything more could be said the door opened and four yellow-uniformed humans entered with weapons in their hands. Harry ignored them and turned back to Guinan. "I still don't see the necessity for liquids to be hot."

Her eyebrows shot up. "It's a preference thing. Like bathing in hot water rather than cold."

"Were you there when it happened?" Harry suddenly asked.

"Where?" Guinan asked.

"When the Borg attacked your home world?" Harry asked.

Her eyes narrowed but she nodded. "I was among the few not present."

"I am sorry." Harry stood as the security team surrounded him and led him from the room. He was led back to the Sickbay without a word from his escort and he was tempted to do the same to them as he had to his previous guard but he kind of looked forward to this meeting. He was led straight to his previous bed and made to sit on it though he refused to lie down as numerous other people entered the room. His escort spread out to the edges of the room as Doctor Crusher, the Captain, Commander Riker, Councillor Troi, Data and Wesley walked into the room.

"You seem to be rather good at giving us the slip." The Captain told him.

"Captain Picard, I've only done it once." Harry responded.

"So you know who I am." Picard nodded. "May we have your name?"

"Harry." Harry told them.

There was a pause as they clearly waited for a surname but he didn't offer one. "This is my First Officer, Commander William Riker. My Chief Medical Officer, Doctor Beverley Crusher. The Ship's Councillor, Deanna Troi. Data, the Ship's primary sensor analyst and lastly Ensign Wesley Crusher, who you seem to have bonded with rather surprisingly."

"Why is that surprising?" Harry asked. "Do humans not seek out friends anymore?"

"Of course." Picard recovered easily. "We are having trouble finding your records within the Federation Database or the crew manifest for the SS Gavon."

"Was that a question?" Harry asked, honestly curious.

"Yes, son." Picard smiled.

"Son?" Harry frowned. "You can't be my father." Riker covered his mouth with his hand as he snorted. "Was that amusing?" Harry pressed on.

"No." Picard narrowed his eyes at Riker before looking at Harry. "Some people use 'son' as an endearment, it sometimes helps to soften tense moments."

"Is this a tense moment?" Harry asked.

"Clearly not." Picard frowned.

"Then why did you call me your son?" Harry pressed.

"Let's just forget about that bit shall we?" The Councillor suggested. "Was your family on the SS Gavon?"

"No." Harry told her and tilted his head as he felt her mind reading his emotions and thoughts. He blanked his thoughts from her but didn't stop her from feeling his curiosity.

"If you give us their names we can contact them." Picard suggested. "Let them know you're alive."

"Their names are James and Lily Potter." Harry told them honestly. "But I didn't know you could send messages back in time."

"What do you mean?" Data asked.

"They died when I was a baby." Harry told them.

"We're sorry." Deanna told him.

"Why?" Harry asked curiously.

"We're sorry for your loss." Deanna explained. Harry smiled at her.

"Were you a guest on the SS Gavon?" Picard asked.

"No." Harry shook his head. "I visited it but only for a while."

"You'll have to be more specific than that if you want us to find out where you belong." Doctor Crusher told him.

"I didn't say I wanted you to find out where I belong." Harry told them. "I know where I belong. I just don't want to be there."

"You stowed away?" Riker's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"I suppose you could say that." Harry admitted since it was the truth.

"You do realise that is a serious crime?" Doctor Crusher asked.

"Not for me." Harry told her.

"Are you human?" Data suddenly asked shocking everyone.

Harry tilted his head to the side but didn't answer straightaway. Deanna spoke up. "You're amused." She sounded surprised.

"Amusement is so much more fun than any other emotion I find." Harry told her. "Did you feel the Multitude?"

"The Multitude?" Picard asked. "Do you mean the cloud? You've seen it before?"

"Yes." Harry nodded. "I've seen the Multitude. Did you feel it, Deanna Troi?"

"Yes." Deanna nodded.

Harry stood up, standing eye to eye with her before any of them could react. "Did you really _see_ what the Multitude was?" She shook her head. "Shame." Harry sighed before turning to Picard. "You have an interesting crew, somebody who can feel the Multitude and somebody who can become part of it. I've never met either before other than myself."

"So you're not human?" Riker asked.

Harry turned to look at him. "I used to be I suppose."

"So the Cloud...the Multitude changed you?" Picard asked.

"The Multitude doesn't change people." Harry told them, repeating what he'd said before to Guinan. "Why would power change a Lesser?"

"A Lesser?" Picard asked.

"Humans are a Lesser, Captain Picard." Harry told him.

"You're part of the cloud!" Wesley gasped in shock making everybody look at him in surprise except Harry who smiled at him. This was fun.

"Wes!" His mother looked at him in shock.

"He's right!" Deanna was looking at Harry. "You're amused by our reactions."

"What's most interesting about Lessers is the way they react." Harry told her. "Even the Borg's reaction was interesting."

"You've come across the Borg?" Picard asked.

"A few times." Harry admitted. "They avoid the Multitude now."

"I don't know whether we should be believing this, Captain." Riker spoke up.

"For the safety of the crew I'm going to have to ask you to remain here." Picard asked. "If you are what you say you are we have to make sure we are protected. A shield will be raised around this section of the Sickbay."

"I don't understand how this would keep you safe." Harry frowned. "I would not need to leave this place to cause damage to your ship."

"But would the force field keep you in place?" Data asked.

"No." Harry frowned. "Not for long."

"Computer, erect a level ten force field and notify the Bridge if it is tampered with at any time." Picard ordered. There was a shimmer between Harry and them all and Harry reached out a hand. It fizzed against the shield and he held it there for a moment feeling the shield. "This is just a precaution, son." The Captain told him. "As soon as we determine you are not a threat you'll be released."

"A son must be younger than the father, Captain Picard." Harry told him with sad eyes. "May you determine your inability to control me soon. It seems such a shame to trap me this way when there is so much to learn on your ship."

"I'll make sure you have somebody to keep you company." Picard told him. "Ensign Crusher, how would you like that task?"

"Yes, Sir." Wesley nodded. Harry watched them from behind his force field as everybody but Wesley left the room.

"Wesley, it's boring in this room." Harry told him rather childishly.

"I can't let you out." Wesley told him.

"Can't, or won't?" Harry asked.

Wesley winced. "Won't."

"Did you know that honesty is more common now than it ever has been in the human race?" Harry asked with a grin. "But I think you're interesting enough to keep me from getting bored."

Wesley flushed bright red. "How much did you hear last night?"

"I created this body to eventually take residence in but I explored the ship." Harry told him. "I didn't want to be trapped before I had the chance to find out what you were like. I heard everything you said. I'd like a friend."

"I thought you were human." Wesley told him as he sat on a bed next to Harry's little containment area.

"I am." Harry told him.

"Because you've take a human form." Wesley argued.

"I was human before." Harry told him. "I lived on Earth along with the rest of the Multitude. Most of our kind became greedy and power hungry and the few of us that weren't had no choice but to get dragged into it."

"What happened?"

"You really want to know about me?" Harry asked.

"Yeah." Wesley told him.

"We made a mistake. My enemy was drawing together a powerful nexus of power and we thought that by destroying it we could save Earth but I was wrong. The explosion took us all. It created the Multitude." Harry told him. "A collective of all of our minds and the power of Dark Matter that we yielded."

"How long ago was that?"

"It was in the late twentieth century." Harry told him.

"Four hundred years!" Wesley gasped. "What have you done in all that time?"

"Carried on our old ways." Harry told him.

"Seeking power?" Wesley asked.

"At least that's what the Multitude wanted." Harry sighed. "I wanted to learn but I was one among thousands. When I realised this was a ship of humans from Earth I created a body for myself so I could interact with you properly."

"So why did the Multitude attack the Gavon?" Wesley asked.

"There isn't any particular reason I can give you." Harry shook his head. "The ship irritated the Multitude so it removed the problem."

"What's it going to do now?" Wesley asked.

"Seek power." Harry told him.

"Why?" Wesley asked. "To feed?"

"If it was to feed it would have cause for destruction, Wesley." Harry told him. "The Multitude enjoys the feeling of power."

"And it's heading for the sun!" Wesley gasped.

"How long?" Harry asked.

"It'll reach the sun in a few hours." Wesley told him.

"It would be for the best if I was on your Bridge when it reaches the sun." Harry told him.

"I don't think the Captain will like that." Wesley warned him.

Harry stepped around so only the shield separated them before he took a step forwards. The shield whined as it tried to stop Harry but after a moment Harry stepped straight through it and into Wesley's personal space. "I need to see what it does after it gets to the sun, Wesley." Harry told him before leaning forwards within half an inch of Wesley. "I might not seem human, Wesley, but my mind is and I care about Earth." Harry noticed the way Wesley was looking between Harry's eyes and his lips and he grinned suddenly and pecked Wesley on the lips before sliding back through the force field which hadn't even reported Harry's passage.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Wesley stared at him in shock for a moment before fleeing from the room thinking only that he'd enjoyed that brief kiss but the entire thing had been too surreal. He headed for the Bridge and almost dashed out onto it. Picard and Riker turned to look at him and Deanna blinked in shock at his feelings. Wesley felt his cheeks heating up so concentrated on his superiors regardless of the amused and concerned look on Deanna's face.

"Captain, I think there's some things you need to know." Wesley told him.

"Enough to leave our guest alone in his confinement?" Riker asked.

"I..." Wesley went red again. "He walked straight through it, Sir, and the computer didn't register any tampering. I locked the door and security is in the room."

"Alright, Ensign." Picard shook his head. "What's so important?"

"He told me a lot about his past that I think you should know." Wesley rushed through the entire conversation except for the last moment with the kiss which he kept to himself.

"That's all rather odd to hear." Riker pointed out.

"Yet it fits all of the facts we have thus far recorded." Data pointed out.

"So our guest is a part of this Multitude and has taken a human form to interact with us because he is curious about us?" Picard asked.

"Is that so strange?" Deanna asked. "Most races do a similar thing when they send greetings in a language familiar to the other race."

"She's right." Riker agreed. "When you take out the sentient cloud of Dark Matter it makes sense."

"So what now?" Picard asked.

"Captain?" Wesley spoke up nervously. "He wants to come up to the Bridge for when the Multitude reaches the sun."

"If he can walk through a level ten force field why is he asking permission?" Riker asked.

"Courtesy." Deanna told her Captain.

"Ensign Crusher, take our guest to ten-forward for some lunch and then extend my invitation for him to join us on the Bridge in one hour." Picard told him.

"Yes, Captain." For some reason Wesley couldn't stop the grin from spreading across his face as he left the room.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

End Chapter


	2. Intervention

Darkness in the Void

Chapter 2; Intervention

**U.S.S. Enterprise**

Wesley couldn't help but eye the strange boy that sat opposite him. He'd done what the Captain had told him to do and brought Harry down to Ten-forward for something to eat. The two armed security guards didn't seem to faze the rather playful boy and every time somebody stared at him, Harry just grinned back or asked them something about the ship or themselves. Harry seemed to have a long list of questions that were specifically worded to embarrass people.

"What do you want?" Wesley asked after Harry placed his attention back on himself and not on everybody in the room.

"Want?" Harry asked.

"To eat?" Wesley tried not to laugh. "You know... food?"

"Hot food." Harry grinned suddenly and turned to the bar, clearly looking for Guinan.

"That was the idea." Wesley frowned as he spoke slowly. "How are you so naive?"

Harry looked at him and a small smile graced his features. "It's been a long time."

"A long time?" Wesley frowned. "Since what?"

"Since I was human." Harry told him softly.

"But where do all these questions come from?" Wesley asked. "All this wonder and astonishment?"

Harry leaned forwards and Wesley couldn't help but lean forwards as if Harry was about to impart some awesome knowledge to him that would forever change the future. "Don't you ever wonder what makes another person feel happiness? Or what they think the carpet feels like? Or what colour red looks like to another person?"

"Why does anything like that matter?" Wesley asked.

"Why _doesn't_ it matter?" Harry countered without missing a beat.

"You're..." Wesley sighed. "You're infuriating!"

Harry's smile widened and he laughed making everybody look at them. Wesley ducked his head slightly but Harry didn't seem fazed by everybody looking at him. Harry stopped laughing when a short tone was heard throughout the room. Harry looked at Wesley with a curious look. "It's a yellow alert. A warning that we might be entering a dangerous situation."

"Like the red alert?" Harry asked and Wesley nodded at him. Harry grinned happily. "I like alerts, everybody does things."

Wesley shook his head just as a beeping sound came from the small device attached to his chest. _"Ensign Crusher, report to the Bridge."_

Wesley tapped the badge. "On my way, Commander Riker." Wesley spoke before standing. "The Captain agreed that you could come onto the Bridge."

Harry smiled again like he seemed to constantly do and stood as well. The security detachment followed them from the room and Wesley led Harry to a turbo lift and from there up to the bridge where the security men waited at the side.

Harry walked into the room with Wesley at his side and saw everybody looking at him. Captain Picard, Commander Riker, Lieutenant Commander Data, Lieutenant Yar and Councillor Troi were all the ones he knew. "Ensign Crusher, take the helm." The Captain ordered bluntly. "Welcome to the bridge." He told Harry.

"You don't want me here." Harry said simply but not fazed at all.

"Are you an empath too?" Picard asked though there was nothing but mild irritation in his voice.

"Not anymore." Harry told him truthfully. "I'm not much compared to what I was before."

"Yet you can walk through force fields." Riker pointed out.

"Yes, number one. Quite true." Picard nodded. "How about you tell us what you know of this 'Multitude'?"

Harry tilted his head. "Is there anything in particular you wanted to know?"

"Anything you can tell us." Riker pointed out.

"I would not be able to express it at a speed you could understand within your lifetime." Harry told him in amusement. "You have to be more specific, I could tell you of the people that were individuals before they became part of the whole, or I could tell you how it thinks and feels. I could tell you it's limitations or it strengths."

"It's limitations would be good." Picard nodded. "Why don't you tell us about those?"

"I said I could, not that I'd want to." Harry told him, he was amused again. He liked pushing their emotions around.

Picard gritted his teeth. "Captain." Councillor Troi rested a hand on his arm. "He's doing this on purpose. He is amused."

"Harry. Please tell us." Harry turned to look at Wesley without a smile.

"You have no limitations." Troi frowned at him. "You said you could tell us but not that there were any."

Harry turned back to her and a smirk graced his lips. "I like your race." Harry told her. "I have never met one of your kind before. You are more perceptive than most. Could you take me to your world?"

"Maybe another time." Troi glanced at Picard.

"If the Multitude has no limitations does it have a weakness?" Riker asked.

"I don't know." Harry shrugged.

"How can you not know?" Riker asked.

"Do you know your weakness?" Harry countered without changing his expression. "Nobody has managed to hurt us before."

"Even another like yourself?" Picard asked.

"There are no others like the Multitude." Harry told him. "That we have met. There are those like what we once were but they are not the same."

"What do you mean?" Councillor Troi asked. "Not the same?"

"They have different emotions." Harry told her. "Desires."

"And what desires and emotions did your kind have before you became the Multitude?" She asked.

Harry looked down and his mind turned inwards and he tried to drag up the feelings he had once had when he was a mere Lesser. He pushed them away knowing they weren't what she wanted and searched for what some of the others had felt, what most of them had felt before he focused on all of it and looked up. His mind and emotions struck her first and she absorbed it all with a sharp gasp even as they all saw the pain and sorrow in his eyes.

"Such anger and fear." She frowned. "Some of them wanted power for protection. But most wanted..."

"Deanna?" Picard pressed her.

"They wanted subservience, domination. They wanted others to revere them. To fear them." She told him. Harry looked around even as he pushed all his emotions back where he preferred them, out of himself. Wesley was looking at him in confusion and shock. "You weren't like them though." Troi spoke up. "I can feel your regret at those emotions. But you don't regret being part of the Multitude."

"I'm not a Lesser." Harry told her.

"Then what are you?" Picard asked.

"Has the Multitude reached the Sun?" Harry asked instead of answering.

"The cloud will reach the Sun's outer layer in twenty-two seconds." Data told them all.

"Can I see it?" Harry asked.

"On screen." Picard ordered and the large window at the front changed from stars to show the almost straight line of the sun's surface across the middle of the screen. Above it a large black mess was slowly settling against it. Harry walked passed Data and Wesley and stopped only inches from the screen. His hand came up to rest against the screen. "What is it doing?"

"It's feeling." Harry told him.

"Feeling what?" Picard pressed him.

"Just feeling." Harry shrugged. "Power, satisfaction, strength, protection, everything."

"So it's not feeding on the sun?" Riker asked sounding relieved.

"That makes you feel happy?" Harry asked him.

"Why shouldn't it?" Riker asked. "It's just feeling the power."

"It isn't yet." Harry told him.

"Captain. The cloud is spreading across the surface of the sun." Data told him. On the screen they all watched as the dark cloud started spreading across the sun's surface. "It doesn't seem to be growing, just spreading out to enclose the entire sun."

"What's it doing?" Picard asked.

"Feeling." Harry told him again. "You are too close."

"Can we stop it?" Picard asked.

"No." Harry told him. His eyes were shuttered as he watched the Multitude slowly encircle the entire sun.

"You feel desire." Troi spoke up from behind her. "You want to return to the Multitude."

"I'm missing it." Harry sighed unable to stop from wanting the same thing that the Multitude wanted. The surge of power that they felt when a sun exploded. "You're too close." He said again without taking his eyes from the window.

"The sun's output it fluctuating." Data announced. "Predicted Supernova in two minutes and ten seconds."

"Supernova!" Riker asked.

"Can you tell me of another thing more powerful?" Harry barely thought about what he was saying.

"So this is for the same reason as the Warp Core overload on the Gavon?" Riker asked.

"You have hot drinks." Harry told him.

"Prepare Photon Torpedoes." Riker ordered.

"Harry." Wesley asked. "Can Photon Torpedoes hurt the Multitude?"

"The other ships fired them at us." Harry told him without looking away from the screen.

"Theoretically Dark Matter cannot be destroyed with any weapon currently known." Data spoke up.

"Belay that order." Picard sighed. "We don't do anything to make that thing turn against us. Record everything that happens and open a DataStream of all sensor findings with Starfleet."

"Aye Sir." Yar responded instantly. Harry watched in fascination and wonder as the sun was blanketed in the Multitude, dimming visibly for a while. Just as it went Supernova the sun flared a bright white and fireballed outwards, seemingly consuming the Multitude within the explosion.

"Get us clear, Ensign!" Picard ordered.

Harry didn't feel anything though his own abilities strained in complaint as the distance grew between himself and the Multitude even as they sung at the far off sensation of all that pleasure and feeling. Harry's throat closed up as an emotion soared through him. He felt so much sorrow at making this choice, of locking himself in the cage and not being able to feel all that power.

The sun imploded in on itself leaving the screen dark even still under Harry's hand. "Harry?" Harry turned to look at Wesley but his eyes barely focused on him.

"The cloud is accelerating." Data announced.

"Course?" Picard asked.

"Course is 190-Mark-7." Data told him.

"Where will it go?" Picard asked him.

"Where ever it wants to go." Harry told him without looking away from the ground somewhere between Wesley and the front screen.

"Do you have any idea where that will be?" Picard pushed.

"I knew that from before I left the Multitude." Harry told him and finally looked up at the man. "The Gavon reminded it of home and now it's attention is firmly set on Earth once again."

"So it'll travel to Earth?" Riker asked. "That would take a thousand years."

"It won't travel straight to Earth." Harry told him. "It'll seek out power on the way, going to Earth is boring when no resistance can be found."

"So it wants to draw us into a war?" Riker frowned.

"Everyone." Harry sighed.

"In a thousand years." Riker frowned at him.

"Why a thousand years?" Harry asked and looked at Wesley.

"Without Warp speed how can it reach Earth?" Wesley asked him in return.

"Sir!" Data sat up straighter. "The cloud has jumped to Warp one-point-two and is accelerating."

"How is that possible without a Warp Core?" Wesley asked him.

"We could do it before we became the Multitude." Harry told him feeling surprisingly drained of energy.

"Are you okay?" Wesley asked.

"Can I sleep?" Harry asked.

"Take him to guest accommodation, Ensign Crusher." Picard told him. "He's your responsibility."

"Aye, Captain." Wesley handed his controls to another human and offered Harry a way to the door. Harry looked around at all the staring faces and followed him silently.

He followed Wesley down through the ship to a long thin room with big windows. The stars were streaking passed the window. "You didn't ask anybody any questions." Wesley stated.

"Was that a question?" Harry retorted.

"Do you regret coming here?" Wesley asked.

"I did." Harry told him and stepped closer. For a time on the Bridge he had regretted his decision to become human again.

"Are you even human enough to care what happens to us?" Wesley asked.

"Nothing will happen to you if you don't attack the Multitude." Harry shrugged.

"The Captain will do everything he can to stop that thing, even if it means sacrificing the ship, and there isn't anyone here that wouldn't agree with him one hundred percent." Wesley told him. "Now answer my question. Do you care what happens to us?"

"Yes." Harry told him "I care about what happens to you."

"So, you'll help us stop it?" Wesley asked.

"No." Harry shook his head. "I'll keep you safe."

"How?"

"I won't let you attack it." Harry told him. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Why not us?"

"Us?" Harry frowned.

"Why don't you want us to get hurt?" Wesley asked.

"I don't want _you_ to get hurt." Harry corrected.

"Okay." Wesley sighed as if talking to a child. "Why don't you want _me_ to get hurt?"

"I think I love you." Harry told him and almost seemed to drift closer to the other boy.

Wesley snorted. "You can't be serious, how can you think that so quickly? You're too naive."

"All I really have is my emotions and feelings, Wesley." Harry told him, taking another step towards the other boy. "I felt dead in the Multitude at times. I feel alive with you. I was attracted to you when I took my form."

Wesley froze up when Harry's hands came up to take hold of his upper arms. A small spark ran up his arms and Wesley almost thought he'd imagined it until he saw the same spark run around Harry. "What do you want?" Wesley gasped out.

"I want my life back." Harry told him.

"Your life?" Wesley asked.

"Can I show you?" Harry asked.

"Show me?" Wesley asked.

"It might hurt." Harry told him and stood almost nose to nose with him. Wesley didn't step back so Harry touched their foreheads together and instantly their eyes flashed with images as Harry's life flashed in front of Wesley's eyes. Flickered images of his parents' murder from a memory of Voldemort's. His abuse and neglect at the hands of his relatives. Years of battles and war up until his seventeenth year. Him leading fully grown men into a final battle where he could only watch as they were slaughtered around him. Staring at an ebbing mass of Dark Matter that blotted out the sky before it blew out and tore up everything including Harry.

Harry pulled his mind back but not before the vision of eight Borg cubes all around them took form in Wesley's mind, then there was a flash of several other ships. When they came back to reality Wesley realised they were sitting against the wall. Wesley's arms were around Harry even though Harry's forehead was still in contact with his own.

Wesley ripped his head around and gasped in air as he dry heaved at the sight of so much war and blood. In space it was another matter, ships were destroyed but it was all very unattached. He'd heard stories of battles on planets like that but the massacres he'd witnessed were so much worse than laser fire.

"That was on Earth?" Wesley asked eventually when he turned to look back at Harry. Harry nodded and he stood up. Wesley pulled himself up and realised in surprise that there was something different about his new friend. He seemed to be dimmer than before. It was with that realisation that Wesley realised just how much Harry normally glowed, it wasn't just a visible glow but also an energy that seemed to drive all of Harry's movements. Now though, that was all gone from him.

He followed Harry into another room and watched in surprise as Harry flopped back onto the bed. Wesley realised that Harry had fallen asleep even as his head hit the pillow. Wesley studied him for a moment, snorting in amusement as he noticed that Harry still had bare feet even after walking around a ship for an entire day. He decided that Harry would rather sleep out of his jumper and trousers so he moved to the edge of the bed and slowly pulled the dark red hooded jumper off of his friend, trying not to stare at the chiselled torso laid out in front of him. He moved his hand down to the button of the loose black trousers and undid it and went to pull the zip down when he realised his friend wore nothing underneath. He knew he was blushing and didn't think he could stand the temptation if he tried to do the button back up.

Instead he pulled the cover up from under Harry and draped it over him. He was scared about what his friend was, about everything he'd been shown. He was scared about the warning Harry had given them all about the Multitude wanting to coax the Federation into war before destroying Earth. But as he sat in the armchair in the corner of the room and stared at Harry he could only think that regardless of how much fear he was feeling he was scared mostly about Harry. He was worried about Harry who for all of his centuries in the Multitude was still just a seventeen year old boy.

Harry had said he loved him.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Harry woke instantly and sat up in confusion at the sensation. He hadn't slept in hundreds of years and the idea of shutting down your mind was peculiar to him and rather unnecessary but he hadn't bothered to reach out with his mind while his body recharged. Harry looked down at himself taking in the fact that his hoodie had been removed and his jeans were slightly undone. He stood up easily and decided that he should keep to human etiquette so he did up his jeans before turning in a complete circle to find his hoodie over the arm of a chair where a human was sleeping.

Harry eyed Wesley for a moment before crossing the room. "Wesley?" Harry asked but didn't get a response. Harry looked around for something else before deciding that these humans preferred to use the most efficient methods to carry out their duty. Harry's duty was to wake Wesley up and he'd long since discovered the most efficient way to get people, human or not, to move. Harry reached out with his hand and placed it on the wall of the room and instantly the air around him began to darken. It got harder the longer he stayed in this form, which couldn't access Dark Matter so easily but it still worked. The lights flashed a violent red and a loud alarm rang throughout the ship.

Wesley yelped and jerked awake before jumping to his feet. He came face to face with Harry and was shocked enough that he fell back into the chair. "Harry?" Wesley frowned. "I need to get to my station, you'd better come with me."

"Why do you have to get to your station?" Harry asked.

"Because it's a red alert." Wesley told him and stood up again.

"No, it isn't." Harry shrugged. "You were sleeping and I wanted my hoodie."

"Hoodie?" Wesley frowned. Harry leaned around him and tugged the red hoodie off the arm of the chair and held it in his arms. He couldn't help but smirk when he noticed that Wesley was staring a bit lower than his face. He blinked before looking back at Harry's eyes in surprise. "You set off the red alert?"

"You didn't wake up." Harry pointed out logically.

"Did you try to shake me?" Wesley asked.

"Setting off an alert was more efficient." Harry shrugged before fiddling with the hoodie and managing to pull it over his head. He had to straighten it a bit, being inexperienced with clothing after so long.

"_Riker to Ensign Crusher."_ Harry glanced around at the voice before looking at the little badge on Wesley's grey clothing.

"Yes, Commander?" Wesley asked after tapping his badge.

"_Are you with our guest and did he set off the alert again?"_ Riker asked. He sounded irritated.

"I'm with him Commander. He set it off to wake me up. I'm sorry, Sir." Wesley apologised sincerely. "He doesn't seem to have many inhibitions when it comes to this sort of thing."

"_Understood, Ensign."_ Riker reported. There was a brief pause and the red flashing lights vanished back to normal. Harry looked around with a slightly sad look, he preferred the flashing lights, they were more exciting. _"Get him something quick to eat and then bring him up to the Bridge. We need his opinion on something."_

"Of course, Commander." Wesley tapped the badge again and looked at Harry with a sigh. "You're getting me into trouble."

"Sorry." Harry shrugged.

"No, you're not." Wesley shook his head before walking out into the main room. "What do you want to eat."

"Food." Harry replied. "I'd forgotten how regularly humans have to eat."

"What kind of food?" Wesley asked. Harry shrugged rather than answer and then sat on the middle of the table and crossed his legs. He was still bare foot and that didn't really bother him. "Computer, Wesley-breakfast one."

Harry looked at him in confusion before turning as a recess in the wall next to Wesley glowed and filled with glittering light before a bowl of something appeared. Wesley picked it up. "Computer, same again." The recess began to glow again but Harry followed the bowl of food that Wesley carried over to him. Wesley handed it to him and then gave him a spoon. "It's sliced bananas and chocolate over waffles. It's my favourite but mum doesn't like me eating it every morning."

"Why not?" Harry asked as he put a spoonful in his mouth and groaned out at the taste.

Wesley laughed. "The chocolate isn't good for you in large quantities and it's all a bit sweet for my mum's taste."

Harry could have thought of a hundred questions to ask but he didn't want to miss any of the taste of the food so he wolfed it down. Wesley finished his own before standing and pulled Harry off the table. Harry swayed slightly and brought a hand up to his forehead. "That hurts." Harry blinked.

"It's a sugar rush." Wesley laughed. "You'll get used to it. Come on or the Captain will have my head."

"For what?" Harry frowned.

"For being late." Wesley told him without a pause.

"No. I mean what would he do with your head?" Wesley groaned dramatically as Harry finished before he started laughing. Harry followed him down the hall staring at his laughing friend even as they walked past three other humans and entered a turbo lift again. "What's funny?"

"I'm sorry." Wesley tried to stop laughing but he still giggled from time to time.

"No, you're not." Harry repeated what Wesley had said to him earlier.

They rode the turbo lift for a while and eventually it opened out onto the bridge. "Ah, our guest has arrived." The Captain stood up from the centre of the room. "I must thank you for waking up the crew this morning."

Harry looked at him with a frown on his face before looking sideways at Wesley as he crossed the room to take over one of the front consoles. He was still trying not to laugh. "What do you find so amusing, Ensign Crusher?" Riker asked from his seat beside the Captain's chair.

"Sorry, Commander, nothing." Wesley tapped around on the console for a bit.

"I must say, Harry. This is the first time I haven't felt even a little bit of amusement from you since you came aboard." Harry turned to look at Deanna Troi and then crossed his arms over his chest. Wesley glanced at him before bursting out into laughter.

"Care to share this with the rest of us?" Picard asked both Harry and Wesley.

"I requested the reason why you would want to have Wesley's head." Harry said simply. "And he started laughing."

Harry watched as amusement flashed across Riker's, Picard's and Deanna's faces. The android, Data, turned in his seat to look at Harry. "I believe the term is a slang used by humans. In this case it means that the Captain would recriminate Ensign Wesley for something he did wrong."

Harry looked at him. "Why didn't he just say that then?"

Wesley burst out laughing again. "Ensign." Picard warned.

"I'm sorry, Captain." Wesley tried to stop and finally managed it after a few moments.

"Human terms can be a little confusing for somebody who is not used to them." Deanna explained as she stood. Harry watched her before turning to the front screen where he could see stars streaking passed to either side of them.

"Where are we going?" Harry asked.

"We are following what you called the Multitude." Picard told him.

"You shouldn't." Harry shook his head.

"Why not?" Picard asked.

"Because if you try to hurt it, they'll kill you." Harry told him simply.

"Well we have our orders." Picard told him. "Data, bring up the estimated course."

The front screen changed to show a series of labelled dots with a red line through the middle of it. Near the bottom of the screen was a flashing triangle over the red line and near the top to the left was a blue triangle. "This is a map of this area." Riker told Harry. "The red line is the current course of the Multitude, we are the flashing triangle at the bottom and the blue triangle is Earth."

"As you can see the Multitude is not on a direct path to Earth." Picard pointed out. "In fact it will miss by several light years."

Harry walked forward towards the map seeing that the red line passed across a thick purple line that weaved up through the stars. "What's this line mean?" Harry asked pointing at the purple line.

"That is the border we share with the Cardassian Empire. We have a rather flimsy peace accord with them." Picard informed him. "And this section is the Romulan Empire. Our peace with them is just as frail."

"The Multitude wants war, it wants as many ships as possible." Harry told him. "It'll try to draw in these two races either against it or against you."

"Captain." Data turned. "I believe I can adjust the estimated course if I know what kind of targets the Multitude will strike at."

"Would it know where the ships are?" Riker asked Harry.

"It will attack any planets with those races on them." Harry looked back at the screen.

"How will it know that?" Riker asked.

"It will have taken the information from your other ship's computer before destroying the ship." Harry didn't look at any of them.

"Which means we know which planets it would strike at." Picard sounded pleased. Harry turned to look at him, startled that he'd be happy with that.

"You are happy?" Harry walked towards him, between Data and Wesley. "Why?"

"If we know where they may strike..." Picard started.

Harry jerked his head around before turning his back on Picard. "It won't matter."

"Harry, we have to try." Wesley turned in his seat to look at Harry pleadingly but Harry simply shut his eyes to the rest of the world.

"Captain, I think I may have a course." Data spoke up making Harry open his eyes again. The screen changed again. The red line was now weaving between planets close to the Cardassian and Romulan side of the border, crossing the line a few times to reach planets on the Federation side. "I have presumed that the Multitude will attack our own planets also."

"Is this about right, Harry?" Picard asked.

"It is reasonable." Harry shrugged.

"Send this course to Starfleet Headquarters with the suggestion that they evacuate these planets and send word to the Cardassians and Romulans about what we know." Picard turned to a woman behind him. "Request that they get permission for the Enterprise to cross the border in these places. Starfleet has already told us that they can't track the Multitude on long range sensors. If we can't follow it this predicted course may be all we have."

"You won't be able to keep up with it." Harry told him. "No ship has."

"The Multitude is current travelling at Warp six-point-two." Data spoke up. "It has kept to that speed since it first accelerated."

"It is limited." Harry said simply.

"Sir, message from Starbase five-one-two." The Klingon spoke up. "Responding to our warning, they are evacuating now."

"What is this Starbase five-one-two?" Harry asked.

"A support station on our current course. We will pass it shortly if the Multitude doesn't stop." Data told him.

"It will." Harry told him.

"We will do what we can to give the Starbase time to evacuate." Picard announced.

"Captain, we are now approaching Starbase five-one-two." Data announced. "The Multitude is slowing."

"Match its speed but keep our distance, Ensign." Riker ordered.

"Yes, Commander." Wesley said.

As Harry watched the ship slowed to normal speeds and a large cylindrical space station came into view, over shadowed by the Multitude. Harry walked towards the front window and he was joined by Picard. They watched as the Multitude slowly approached the station, reaching out sections of itself to slowly surround it. "What will it do?"

Harry didn't answer straight away, seeing a large ship slowly leave to the right even as another just exited the side of the station. "It won't bother with the small ships or us if you don't attack. It's only interested in the station."

"Why?"

"Because at the moment it is limited." Harry told him. Picard went to pressure him into a better answer but stopped when the Multitude lashed out in a dozen placed and sliced through the station, wrapping itself around the station even as it broke apart until with a violent flash of light the Power Core exploded. The explosion was almost completely consumed by the Multitude.

The bridge was silent for a few moment as they watched the explosion disappear and the Multitude almost seemed to turn itself inside out before it started away from the debris. A few seconds later and it was streaking from view as it jumped to Warp speeds.

"Captain?" Wesley asked.

"Follow it, Ensign." The scenery streaked a foot from Harry face as the Enterprise sped to follow the Multitude.

"Sir, I'm having to keep to Warp six-point-eight to maintain distance." Wesley sounded shocked.

"I told you, it was limited before." Harry told Picard when the man turned to look at him. "Soon it will be too fast for you to follow."

"So it needed to feed from the station to reach fast speeds?" Riker asked.

"Not exactly." Harry turned to him. "Even I feel slightly stronger now. The explosion changes Dark Matter into a form we can absorb. The effect is small and with an entity like me, separate from than Multitude it is almost too small to make a difference but with the several thousand within the Multitude..."

"The effect is larger." Picard nodded before turning to look up at the Klingon. "Forward that information to Starfleet, if they can remove the Cores from the planets they should."

"The Power Core's on the planets are of little consequence." Harry told him. "The planet's cores will feed it."

"This is getting more complicated as we go." Picard sighed. "I want options and I want them before that thing reaches its next destination in one hour. See to it."

Harry was left standing at the front of the bridge as Deanna and the Captain walked out of a side door.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**An hour later**

"If we're right, Captain, we might be able to destabilise the cloud with the deflector dish. We've taken all the information that we can from the sensor logs." Geordi told the Captain. Harry turned to look at the visored man for a moment before turning back to the screen and the stars flying past the ship. "Theoretically it will severally limit the cloud's link to the Dark Energy it's using."

"It shouldn't actually do any harm to the cloud but it will weaken it significantly." Data commented. The crew all nodded in satisfaction.

"You got this idea from me." Harry accused Geordi. "When I mentioned it's limits."

"You said it didn't have any limitations." Wesley pointed out.

"Speed doesn't matter to it." Harry turned to Wesley. "Don't do it."

"We don't have a choice." Picard told him sharply. "We'll do everything in our power to stop this 'Multitude' before it reaches the planet. If we can weaken it..."

"You'll what?" Harry asked him seemingly gliding towards the Captain. "You can't harm it."

"Actually you said that nobody had before." Riker told him. "Doesn't mean we can't manage it."

"Sir, the cloud is dropping to impulse speeds." Wesley told him. "Matching speed."

As Harry watched the Enterprise fell back to normal speeds and the view settled onto a sight Harry hadn't seen in a while. A planet sat quite close full of blues, whites and greens and around it were the shape of ships. A small armada of ships between them and the planet. The Multitude shifted around between them blotting out the view.

"Charge the deflector, Lieutenant." The Captain ordered Geordi.

"I don't want you to do that." Harry told the Captain. "Humans do what they want so you should do what I want."

"We have to." The Captain told him simply.

"Deflector charged." Geordi reported. "The cloud is in range."

"Don't ignore me." Harry had his back to the screen that everybody else was looking at and the Captain just glanced at him for a moment. "You're treating me like a human." Harry realised this even as he said it aloud.

"Fire the deflector." Picard ordered.

"No!" Harry yelled and shocked them all as the air around him throbbed as Dark Energy flooded away from him vanishing into nothing just short of the walls. The ship jerked violently and sparks flew from a few of the consoles as feedback overloaded them. The crew were thrown to the sides and only Wesley and Data, seated as they were, remained where they were supposed to be.

"Report!" Riker shouted as he pulled himself to his feet.

"We took a strike directly to the deflector dish before it could fire." Geordi reported. "The feedback has taken out impulse engines."

"The Multitude?" Picard asked.

"Harry?" Wesley's voice made Harry turn away from the Captain to look at him. "You did this?"

"You shouldn't ignore me." Harry told him.

"Security!" Picard shouted and instantly the two men in yellow stepped away from the turbo lift and raised their weapons at him. "Take him down to the brig."

Harry stepped away from the two men as they approached him and put Data's console between him and them. "Captain, the Cardassians are attacking the Multitude." Data reported.

"Can you fire?" Riker asked.

"At this range only with photon torpedoes." The crewman at weapons reported.

"Fire at will." Picard ordered.

"No!" Harry yelled and the ship lurched violently sending the view through the window spinning. The ship spun on its axis as Harry sent it flying through space before he staggered to his knees, losing the ability to stand even as the rest of the crew were thrown around.

"Harry? What did you do?" Wesley asked in shock, his fingers flying over his console. "Captain! We're half a light year from our previous position."

"I won't let you get killed." Harry gasped out before he fell forwards onto the deck of the bridge in a dead faint leaving the crew to try to sort out their crippled ship in the middle of space.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

End Chapter


	3. One against the Multitude

Star Trek

Chapter 3; One against the Multitude

Harry woke up and drew in a deep breath of air making the doctor near to his head leap backwards in shock. "Oh my!" She clutched at her chest. "You weren't breathing."

"Well, perhaps I got a few things wrong." Harry sat up noting that he was missing his hoodie but his jeans were still on him so that was something.

"Like breathing?" She asked. Harry just looked around them. They were in a small room with plain walls and one of the walls missing which led into a corridor that lead through to another room identical to this one. He'd seen people locked in rooms like this before. They were never happy there. Two yellow uniformed men hung back in the corridor holding big weapons. "The scans finally managed to pick you up again while you were out but you're starting to disappear on us again."

"Where's Wesley?" Harry asked rather than comment on what she'd said.

"He's working on the bridge, trying to help fix what you broke." She told him with a reprising look. "The Captain is furious with you."

"You're alive though." Harry pointed out. "Why is he angry at me for saving you?"

"Sometimes you have to let people make their own choices." Beverly told him.

"But if I know that you'll make the wrong one and I have the power to prevent it then why shouldn't I?" Harry pressed as he turned to slide his legs over the edge of the bench he had been lying on.

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should." She shrugged. Harry stood up and she took a step back through the hole and into the corridor. One of the men touched the wall and a faint yellow shield appeared across the gap. "You may be almost like a god with your powers but that doesn't make you wise."

"Where is the wisdom in sacrificing yourself?" Harry asked and walked up to the shield and touched it with his hand. Darkness emerged from his skin and touched the shield where his skin met it. The shield fizzed but held strong. Harry was weaker and for some reason he wasn't regaining his strength as fast as normal.

"There is wisdom in fighting to your last breath to protect what you care about." Beverly told him even as he drew back his hand and put both of his hands in the pockets of his jeans uncaring about the fact his hoodie was still lying on the bed.

"Not when there is no hope." Harry turned his back on her and simply stood there as Beverly walked away and the security men walked out of view. Harry sighed and sat down on the bench and pulled his hoodie over his torso and merely waited as he tried to work out why his powers were taking so long to regenerate.

"Harry." Harry looked up at the voice to find Wesley standing in his doorway.

"Wesley." Harry leaned back and pulled the hood up over his head. "Are you here to let me out?"

"I'm sorry, Harry. But I'm not allowed to let you out." Wesley shook his head. "We've adapted the weapon we wanted to use to shield this cell to prevent Dark Matter from getting to you. I'm sorry, but that's the only way we could think of to contain you."

"You don't sound happy about that, Wesley." Harry stood up and dug his hands into his hoodie's pockets. "You've achieved what you were trying to do. Doesn't that make humans happy."

"I'm not happy about it because you're sad." Wesley told him. "There's a ship trailing the Multitude and it's hit another four worlds. Half of the fleet you saw was destroyed and the rest retreated. We're not standing in its way anymore but we've got to come up with something to stop it getting to Earth. We can't just abandon our home."

"What is it there you need so badly?" Harry asked.

"A past." Wesley told him. "The human race is from Earth, everything we learned before we went to space was learnt there and it's the symbol that we fight for. Without it we would be lost."

"Can you even get to Earth in time to attempt anything?" Harry questioned.

"We don't think so. The damage to the warp core is too great." Wesley's eyes looked dead.

"Leave me alone, Wesley." Harry turned around, putting his back to his friend.

"Harry!" Wesley gasped. "I'm sorry..."

"I don't want to be human anymore." Harry turned back and there was a flash as all the light in the room seemed to fade and with a flash of darkness the cell was filled with a cloud like the Multitude.

"Harry!" Wesley lurched backwards and the two security guards levelled weapons at the cell. The cloud roiled within the small space becoming smaller and smaller until it was a mere fraction of the size but far denser. "Red Alert!"

Red lights flashed as the alarm went off but before Wesley could say anything the ball of Dark Matter burst out of the cell, shattering the shield as it went. It ignored everything else as it blasted straight through the wall without effecting it. "Ensign Wesley to the Bridge!" Wesley gasped out. "Harry's gone! He turned into a cloud and went straight through the shield and the bulkhead."

"Get up here, Ensign." Riker ordered him.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Harry burst from the side of the _Enterprise_ and spread himself out as he lingered in space, absorbing energy, bringing himself more and more power until he was back at his normal level for when he wasn't confined to a body like he had been on the ship that he hung in front of.

Time meant little to him but while he had been hanging there the ship had moved slightly. They'd probably gotten their impulse engines back online and he knew that their main deflector was back online because he could sense the weapon that could take some of his strength from him. He had made a decision in the time that he regained his strength and that was to do what he could to help Wesley and the rest of the humans. He had been similar to them a long time ago and he'd lost everything. Even if the _Enterprise_ was left stranded out here until after the battle was fought and lost by the humans, they'd be alone with no home.

So Harry would do something to help them but he'd need more energy and he couldn't afford to take his time about it. He decided it was time to put his plan into action.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

_**Enterprise**_

"Any change, Data?" Captain Picard asked as he returned to the bridge after his short sleep.

"The cloud seems to have finished growing in size but has made no movements and didn't react when we pulled away." Data reported.

"You know Harry the best, Wesley." Picard pointed out. "What do you think he's waiting for?"

"I don't know, Captain." Wesley sighed. "Like I said before, I think we really hurt his feelings when we locked him away."

"Like that did any good." Riker pointed out.

"I believe we learnt something though." Wesley told them.

"What's that?" Riker asked.

"That they are too powerful for us to destroy." Wesley said.

"And that helps us?" Riker raised an eyebrow.

"I believe that Wesley is onto something." Data spoke up. "If we change our tactics away from destruction then we may be able to protect Earth."

"Do you have a plan?" Picard asked.

"I have yet to come up with a suggestion." Data told them. "However the deflector concept may buy us time."

"Captain!" Jordy's voice called from the back of the bridge where he was checking through the computer system. "Something is inside the mainframe."

"What is it?" Picard asked.

"I'm not sure, Sir." Jordy frowned. "But anything it's in just vanishes from sensors."

"Could it be Harry?" Riker asked.

"Wait, it's gone." Jordy announced. "The last place it was in was the deflector modifications."

"He's trying to help." Wesley gasped as he straightened up in the pilot's seat.

"Data, do you think Harry could do something to the Multitude?" Picard asked.

"In theory we cannot affect Dark Matter because we are made of a different type of matter. Harry, as Dark Matter, may be able to affect it." Data suggested before looking back at his console. "The cloud is moving. Closing fast."

"Shields up." Picard ordered. "Reverse course, full impulse speed."

The _Enterprise_ began falling back as fast as possible but the cloud was faster, it blotted out the view from the front of the ship and surrounded the ship, holding it in place and straining the impulse drive. "I've lost control of the ship." Wesley reported.

"The cloud is inside the shield." Data reported.

"_Engineering to bridge!"_ A voice sounded panicked. _"There's something in here! A black cloud, it's entering the warp core!"_

"Evacuate engineering!" Picard ordered.

"The warp core is overloading." Data reported. "Twenty seconds."

"He's destroying the ship just like the Multitude did." Riker gasped.

"Harry wouldn't kill us." Wesley defended.

"Like you've said, Ensign." Picard pointed out. "He is like a god compared to us. You can't judge his actions like you would a normal human. Eject the core!"

"Core is ejecting." Data announced. "And the cloud is retreating with it."

"Get us away from here, Ensign." Picard ordered and the view shifted as they pulled back away from the cloud just before the warp core exploded within the cloud, almost completely covered by it.

"The cloud has almost doubled in size, Captain." Data announced.

"Harry wanted to absorb the extra energy." Wesley gasped. "Just like the Multitude is doing."

"However this cloud is only one of his kind and therefore the energy gained from the explosion is not shared." Data affirmed.

"Unfortunately we're now stranded without even enough power to jump to warp speed." Riker sighed.

"We couldn't have reached Earth in time to help anyway, number one." Picard sighed. "What's the cloud doing?" He suddenly asked as he looked up at the screen.

"The cloud is approaching and spreading out." Data announced.

"Pull us back, Ensign." Picard ordered.

Wesley did as ordered and watched as the cloud that was Harry, the guy he was seriously starting to like, ebbed towards them as if arguing their retreat. "We can't outrun him, Captain." He reported.

The Captain paused but knew that the cloud could have destroyed the ship when it had them before. "All stop." He ordered and Wesley responded quickly bringing the _Enterprise_ to a complete stop. The cloud came to a stop as well and spread out around the ship. "Report."

"Internal sensors do not suggest that the cloud has entered the ship." Data announced. "But external hull sensors are not operating. It's like they are not there."

"We're changing direction." Wesley announced before tensing as they felt the distinct acceleration of the ship jumping into warp speed. "We've just passed warp 6.8."

"He's pulled us to warp speed?" Riker seemed surprised.

"Passing 8.1." Wesley raised his eyebrows.

"Course?" Picard asked.

Wesley checked the navigational display. "Straight to the Sol system. Passing warp 9.4."

"Clearly the power he got from our warp core allows him to reach speeds not attainable by the Multitude even after absorbing several forms of energy." Data suggested.

"Time to destination?" Picard asked.

"We're accelerating to warp 9.9." Wesley told him. "At this speed we will reach Earth in two hours and nine minutes."

"I need options by the time we arrive." Picard ordered.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Two hours later**

Harry was starting to realise that he enjoyed not being a part of the Multitude. He had more control over his own desires while he was away from them. While he'd been encased in his human body he'd missed the desires and feelings of being with the Multitude because one of the greatest for him was the freedom but now that he once again had that freedom he found that he could do without the other desires and feelings and to replace them he had the need to protect the humans if not for themselves but because he was immortal and he didn't want to exist forever in a Universe with nobody in it. The Multitude didn't care about keeping people in the Universe and there were plenty of planets and suns for it to enjoy instead.

He slowed himself down just when he was beginning to feel the Multitude and he had to fight not to go all the way into it. He had to do this slowly and not rush into things as if he was a human. The _Enterprise_ fell out of warp speed and he released it and flowed away from the crippled ship content that without a warp core it couldn't provoke the Multitude.

The Multitude was lingering near to Earth's moon and it was surrounded in ships, hundreds of them of all sizes and he knew that there had been more that were now gone. He ignored all of that and with a final ebb in way of a farewell to the _Enterprise_ he streaked through space towards the Multitude even as it enveloped a large ship which exploded seconds later. He rejoined the Multitude just in time to absorb a small share of the Dark Energy created in the explosion and even as the Others welcomed him back he struck out at one at random. So used to acting as a collective entity he had the advantage and he destroyed the Single, removing one of the many in the Multitude and absorbed the energy it had in its share.

The others tried to turn on him, to take away his share of Dark Energy but they were suddenly weakened. It was a fraction of a small amount but it diverted their attention as something outside of themselves weakened them. Harry though was unaffected and even as they lashed out into the outside world Harry attacked from within, growing in power even as the Multitude began to dwindle.

Their desire for power slowly began to change to a desire to survive and for the first time any of the Others could remember they were beginning to lose what they desired.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

_**Enterprise – A few moments before**_

"Returning to normal space." Wesley reported nervously. "We're arriving close to the battle, Captain."

"Without shields or weapons." Riker pointed out even as the ship slowed even though they couldn't see anything outside of a wall of the roiling black cloud that was their brief, troublesome, guest.

"They wouldn't do us much good, Number One." Picard pointed out.

The cloud began to shift and flow away from their view and they saw it ebb before streaking away. Deanna rose up from the seat next to Picard. "I sense such desire." She spoke quietly.

"The mass is approximately ten times as large as when we first encountered it." Data informed them. "And the smaller cloud..." He paused. "Our recent guest, has merged with the larger."

"What of the fleet?" Picard asked anxiously.

"They seem to be fighting a losing battle." Data told them bluntly. "Star Fleet Headquarters is reporting no sizeable damage achieved however the deflector modification we sent has shown a small decrease in the size of the cloud."

"Very well." Picard looked at Wesley. "You still believe that 'Harry' will try to aid us?"

"He brought us here for a reason, Sir." Wesley sighed. "I think he's gone in there to try and I think he took our deflector weapon information so that he can counter it."

"So if we weaken the cloud we could give Harry an advantage?" Riker asked the room in general.

"I have sensed no desire from Harry to return to the Multitude recently." Deanna pointed out. "Even though I have felt it many times before during his visit to our ship."

"Very well." Picard nodded. "Send a communication to all ships to use the deflector modifications and no other types of weaponry."

Wesley could only watch the battle as he tried to keep the _Enterprise_ as far from the cloud as possible yet within range of the deflector but the ship wasn't capable of much without a warp core and even the deflector was rather weak but with hundreds of ships using it they began to see the cloud slow down in its own attacks and begin to diminish in size.

"There!" Wesley suddenly shouted and ignored the fact he was shouting in the bridge. "The cloud!"

"What is it, Wesley?" Deanna asked.

"When the cloud strikes out you can almost see into it and it looks like it's fighting with itself." Wesley announced just before the cloud struck out slicing a tendril through the middle of a small patrol ship which exploded a moment later. As the tendril unfurled they could see past the outer edge of the cloud and at the centre where the cloud was writhing around itself, turning in against itself. It was like a hollow ball with the outer layer fighting them and the inner fighting itself.

"The cloud seems to be focusing on destroying the ships that are weakening it." Data announced after a moment. "It is not absorbing the energy from the explosions like it has done so far."

"It's trying to survive." Picard spoke quietly. "Basic instinct is to destroy your attacker."

"Harry must be killing it from the inside." Wesley almost smiled and probably would have if a large Cruiser hadn't of exploded. If it wasn't for Harry killing it from the inside all of this would be for nothing. The deflector modification could weaken it but not kill it after all.

Even as they watched the cloud struck out at one of the Starships, one of the largest in the fleet and tried to surround it in what was unmistakably an attempt to overload its core and absorb the energy but even as it did another part of the cloud struck out, seemingly from the inside, and blocked it, turning in on itself and forcing it back from the Starship even as another part struck out in another direction only to be stopped in the same way. The cloud exploded outwards and almost seemed to turn into a storm. Energy flashed through it but it became obvious quickly that the part of the cloud that was restraining the rest was beginning to win and more and more of the surface of the cloud calmed.

Almost half an hour after the _Enterprise_ had arrived in the battle the cloud stilled in the centre of the fleet and it took a good few minutes before Picard ordered the other ships to back away and stop attacking. The cloud responded to this by ebbing, roiling in on itself and shrinking, becoming denser until it was only a few times the size of the _Enterprise_ and then it just hung there with the surface flowing like a normal cloud. Almost peacefully.

And then it simply vanished. It faded so rapidly that Data had barely been able to get the Captain's attention to warn him. Instead of the visual cloud that couldn't be seen by sensors except as a dead spot it was now completely gone. The area of space was like it should be with energy readings from behind it and visual light from the stars in the far distance and the ships were merely facing open space.

Wesley felt the energy leaving him and he leaned back in his chair half glad that they had won but also he felt like he was missing a part of his life that he'd only realised he'd had in the last few days with Harry around.

"It seems as though our guest has left us." Picard spoke up quietly and placed a hand on Wesley's shoulder. Wesley straightened up having not realised that his concern was so obvious to the others.

"It just seems so fast." Wesley muttered almost to himself. "He's just gone. Nothing's left but empty space."

"Perhaps in destroying the others he destroyed himself in the end?" Riker suggested.

"It didn't seem to be the case at the end there." Picard pointed out. "Well, we've got much to do and I'm going to have to find a way of explaining all of this to Fleet Headquarters."

Riker chuckled but it was cut off as the lights flashed red. "Who ordered a red alert?" Riker asked.

Deanna suddenly stood up and an amused smile spread across her lips. "I feel a powerful mind. It's amused." Deanna told them. "It is Harry. He's grateful I think. And satisfied."

"Where is he?" Wesley asked hopefully.

"Everywhere." Deanna frowned. "I believe the cloud...Harry... is still in the middle of the fleet but that we can no longer see him."

"Theoretically if he controlled Dark Matter completely and could change it so as not to absorb energy in any form it would be as if he was not there instead of what we have witnessed before." Data lectured.

"You are right." Deanna's eyes were wide. "I think he can hear us, I believe some of him is within the ship. I think he is saying goodbye but can't find a way in his new form."

"I think he just has." Picard nodded at her before looking out at the empty space dotted with ships. "Goodbye, son."

As if in response to the words the cloud appeared in the middle of the fleet, turned in on itself as if a wind had passed through it before it leapt away into space, jumping to warp speed.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

End Chapter


	4. The Return

Darkness in the Void

A/N; I'm afraid this is it for this story until I get back from my trip. I want to try to update Sacrifice and possibly another of my older stories before I go and I've given you four chapters of this one now. It's not finished yet by any means.

Chapter 4; The Return

He wasn't sure how long he drifted through space learning the new lack of limitations that he possessed and time really didn't mean all that much to him but he had an immense desire to study people. To learn about their reactions and this time of adjustment was standing between him and his desires. He didn't want to waste time and for the first time in hundreds of years of existence as part of the Multitude he had a time frame and that time frame was a human. One that would grow old and die. That was a concept that Harry had long since forgotten. Death was never a problem for the Multitude but Harry had changed that. He'd killed the Others and that brought the reality of it back into the forefront of his mind.

All he knew now though was that he wanted to ask questions again. He wanted to study the different species in the Universe without the confronted desires of the Others. Whenever he studied ships in the past the Multitude would always eventually destroy them. Now Harry could really study them. See how they reacted.

He searched every world he came across for life, causing Dark Matter storms in their atmospheres as he settled around them, looking at the life forms that roamed the surface from small creatures to huge monsters. As he slowed himself down over a new planet though he noticed a difference. This was the first planet he had come across that had spread beyond the surface since he had left the humans to the aftermath of the Multitude's attack.

He settled into orbit and began spreading out around the planet as a thick envelope of Dark Matter, ignoring the metal contraption also in orbit that dispensed numerous small ships even as two large ones, almost the size of his old friend the _Enterprise_, slowed down nearby. They didn't fire at him and he recognised the big ships as being identical to one he'd seen a long time ago as part of the Multitude. They called themselves the Romulans and they'd tried to hide their ships when they did scans on the cloud.

He ebbed around the planet, upsetting the magnetic field and absorbing a small amount of it even though he'd learnt how not to absorb the energy. He could feel the energy from a thousand different places being absorbed by the very Matter he was built of. He felt a shift in the magnetic field of the planet and backed away from it and withdrew not wanting to actually destroy the planet and as soon as he was clear he withdrew himself into a smaller ball about the same size as the ships and simply settled there before he reached out another part of himself.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Romulan Space Construction centre**

Harry appeared in a long corridor with many doors coming off of it. He'd never explored a place like this before and while the majority of himself hung in open space nearby his bare feet walked him along the thin carpet of the floor. He decided that it wasn't nearly as comfortable as the carpet on the _Enterprise_. He had remembered clothing this time but only in the way of dark brown trousers that he remembered from when he was younger. They had loose little sections that hung off of them. Cargo pants he thought they had been called. For good measure he had a silver chain hanging from two of the loops. Over his torso was a dark red hoodie just like the one he had worn the last time he had been human.

He revelled in the feeling of air against his skin and the pressure against the soles of his feet and slowly walked around the space station. It was actually rather empty and he found that disappointing so after he still hadn't found anyone to talk to he tried the usual call for a red alert but it didn't work. They probably didn't use the same language and he didn't know what they used instead.

He raised his hand and darkness swallowed it before spreading out to the wall and passed through it. To anyone else's eyes the wall would have vanished and he knew the sensors would be going crazy while the crew would soon be concerned over where this section of wall had gone.

It wasn't long before a loud alarm was ringing through the corridors. Doors slammed shut around Harry and he didn't really want to recreate this body a second time so he merely used his powers to actually spread himself through the door and to let him out. He found people filling the corridor with all manner of tools and materials. They looked worried but then they all looked at him.

"What's all that for?" Harry asked. Before he could realise they weren't going to answer him one of the men raised a gun at him and fired it. It hit Harry in the chest but darkness swallowed it up and Harry wasn't effected but it still hurt Harry's feelings and Dark Energy began to swirl around him as the people began to back away from him.

"I was only trying to be nice!" Harry tried but they ignored him. He sighed and vanished, returning himself to the majority that hung outside.

Once there he turned in on himself before folding himself around when an energy weapon hit him. He recognised it as a similar version to what the human's had come up with that had helped him to destroy the Multitude. But Harry already knew how it worked and it had no effect on him. He lashed out at the ship and even as he did two bright green beams shot from it and struck him. The Dark Matter that made up this form simply moved around the beams and they died within him, unable to do any damage. Two bright balls of light followed and Harry caught them as they exploded and absorbed the energy before he completed his own attack and punched a hole clean through the left hand side of the ship.

The ship spewed debris as one of its sides fell away but Harry didn't care. They had been rude and not even tried to talk to him. Harry turned and sped up, running away from the planet and the mean people on it.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Harry slowed down slightly as he flew through many ships in this area of space. They all looked similar to those that had collected together to fight the Multitude but he didn't understand why they were attacking each other. He decided he wanted to find out and headed closer to the battle between space ships finding the closest ship even as the battle went on around him as the ships ignored him.

He projected his image onto the small ship and took human form again and found himself looking over the shoulders of two people that were sitting in chairs frantically playing with their consoles just like he had seen many people on ships do. "Are you humans?" Harry asked even as he leaned between them to look out of the front window of the ship at the small flashing lights and the huge blot against the stars and half of the nearby moon.

They jumped and the one of the right rounded on him, grabbing a gun from her waist as she did. She went to fire but seemed to pause when she saw the seventeen year old form he had taken. Her eyes trailed down his body to his bare feet and then back up to his face. "Why are you fighting other humans?"

"Who the hell are you and how did you get on my ship?" She asked.

"I'm Harry." He told her with a frown. "And I just wanted to be here."

"How did you beam on?"

"Beam on?" Harry asked.

"_We don't have sensor readings on it!"_ A voice announced from the console. _"The Starfleet ships are backing away from it."_

"Why are they doing that?" Harry asked.

"_We think the order came from the Defiant."_ The voice responded to Harry.

"See, he answers my questions." Harry told the woman.

"Jacob, we're having problems here, an intruder on the ship. A young man." She told the console.

"I'm not a problem." Harry pointed out. "What's the _Defiant?"_

"It's a ship, now just sit over there and shut up." She ordered and rose up to force him back at gun point.

"Do I have to shut up?" Harry asked. "It's boring if I can't ask questions."

"We're busy." She told him.

"Then stop fighting them." Harry pointed out logically. "Then you can answer my questions."

"It's not that simple." She glared at him, glancing at the battle still going on outside. As Harry turned to watch their own ship turned towards the top section of a larger ship.

Harry decided he didn't think that humans should be attacking other humans and part of his mind reached for the rest of himself and the view through the window was blocked as a large section of the cloud reached across forcing the ship to lurch around to avoid it. Harry started spreading himself through the battle, cutting between the two sides.

"See, that was easy. Now you can answer my questions?" Harry grinned at her shocked expression.

"What did you do? How do you control that?" She asked.

"Control it?" Harry frowned. "The same way you control your arms and legs."

"You're that thing?" She gasped.

"That's just being mean." Harry told her deciding he didn't really like these people after all even if they were human. He glowed with darkness and vanished returning to the cloud and watched as the ships on the other side of himself turned and jumped to warp speeds. Harry decided he might like them better and he went after them, following the one that gave off the most amount of energy.

When the ship began to slow down a few hours later Harry slowed down with them, coming back to what the _Enterprise_ had called Impulse speeds. He changed his structure to stop himself from absorbing any type of energy and knew that he couldn't be seen by people with either their eyes or with the energy beams they swept the area with. He decided to be a little subtler this time and formed himself a body once again and reminded himself to form clothing as well but he didn't go into it straight away and merely set it on the space station before he condensed himself down and shot through the outer wall of the station and floated through the corridors, an invisible cloud no larger than a normal person. This was more like how he'd first visited the _Enterprise_ and that had worked out alright.

That thought reminded him of how the _Enterprise_ had had those rooms where you could create anything you wanted and he decided to go in search of those up until about ten minutes later when he realised that this place was far larger than the previous places he'd been. He found a woman walking down the corridor and appeared in the air before her, taking on a facsimile of the body he'd created. The image of what he'd looked like before he'd become Dark Matter. She jumped slightly as she looked up from a flat little device in her hand and saw him standing in front of her. Her eyes settled on his bare feet for a moment and Harry wondered once again why humans always seemed to find that strange. What was so wrong with feeling the floor under his feet?

"Can I help you?" She asked, seeming unsurprised to see him.

"I'm looking for the place where you create people." Harry told her happily.

"Create people?" She frowned. "I don't know what you mean."

"People just say what they want and it appears." Harry told her as if explaining the whole idea to her.

"You mean the holo-decks?" She raised her eyebrows at him.

"I think that's what Wesley called them." Harry bit his lip before nodding happily.

"They're in the central hub." She frowned.

"Where's that?" Harry asked.

"It's that way." She said and pointed back the way she'd come. "Just keep going straight and you'll come out on the upper concourse. Just go down to the lower and go into Quark's Bar."

Harry grinned. "Thanks." Harry told her and vanished back to his invisible form making her jump. He didn't really realise he'd done something wrong and simply floated off in the direction she'd described finding a large open area filled with people and floated down off the top and into a place even more filled with people. It was fascinating for Harry who had never seen so many different types of people in the same place. He saw a man and a woman walk up some steps near the back and out of curiosity followed them into a large empty room. He grinned as he recognised the strange black walls that told him this was where they could make people.

"Computer, begin program Delta-Beach two." The man announced and the whole place changed. The walls vanished and the ground stretched away with sand until it disappeared under breaking waves. In front of them were two almost flat soft looking chairs. "Start program." He continued and people appeared everywhere and noise hit them. The sound of the crashing waves and the laughing people playing in the sand.

The man pulled off his shirt leaving himself in shorts while the woman pulled off her trousers and t-shirt to leave herself in only a rather skimpy lower section. Harry tilted his head in curiosity as they laid back in the sun. "Why do human's want to burn themselves?" Harry asked and they looked up to see him standing in the sand. He couldn't really feel the sand in this form but he imagined it would be soft and warm. He'd have to come and try it when he went into his body.

The man looked up partly surprised by the intrusion but ignored Harry's question as he glanced at the woman. "That's strange." He told her. "Maybe the settings are off on the program. Computer, remove any changes to the original programme and restart."

The people suddenly vanished and reappeared where they had been before but Harry didn't move. "Maybe there's a glitch in the system." The woman suggested. "I've never seen this character in this program before."

"What character?" Harry asked making the man frown.

"Computer freeze program." He announced and Harry glanced around at all the people as they stopped moving.

"You made them stop, they were having fun." Harry frowned before grinning happily as he remembered what to do. "Computer, start program." He grinned wider as the characters started moving again.

"Hey!" The woman gasped and sat up grabbing a towel to put over her exposed chest. "You can't just walk in here!"

"I locked the door." The man told her. "Computer, Identify all personnel in this room."

"All personnel cannot be identified. Doctor Bashire, Natalie Colmers and one unidentifiable person. No Identification tag detected." The woman's voice told them.

"How does she know all of your names?" Harry asked.

"Computer, shut down program." He announced and the scene vanished except for the chairs they sat on which didn't go until the two stood up. Harry looked around and sighed.

"You always spoil my fun." Harry almost pouted before a grin appeared on his face. "Can I try?"

"Try what?" The woman asked.

"Creating something." Harry looked around and bit his lip. "Computer, turn everything red." In seconds all of the walls and the ceiling and floor were red without any seams making it look like the three of them were hovering in a red expanse. "Ok, Computer turn everything into a flowing black cloud." Everything went dark.

"Computer, end programme." The man said sharply and it all vanished again to return to the normal walls. Harry glared at the man but wasn't really hurt.

"Can I play with that later?" Harry asked.

"Maybe." The man told him. "What's your name?"

"Harry." Harry straightened up with a grin.

"And which ship did you come in on?" The woman asked.

Harry bit his lip before deciding to just tell the truth. "I came here with the _Defiant._"

"How did you get onto the _Defiant_." The man asked.

Harry frowned. "I didn't."

The man looked at the woman with a confused look but was interrupted from saying anything when the comm. badge that he'd placed on his shorts bleeped at them all. "Doctor Bashire, please join us in the medical bay immediately." A man's voice told him.

"I'll be right there." The man replied before turning to the woman. "I'm sorry about this."

"I'll talk to you later." She told him with a dismissive wave.

He smiled at her and quickly kissed her on the cheek before turning to where Harry had been standing only to find him gone. He stared for a moment before frowning at the woman. Harry followed him out of the room and through the station to what had to be the medical bay. There were a few people in there but most noticeable was his body lying on one of the beds.

There was also three others in the room. A dark skinned man in red like Picard had worn, a woman in blue like Beverly had worn and lastly a man wearing a brown uniform that didn't seem to be the same type as the Starfleet wore. The last man was also not human, he looked similar but Harry could sense an energy from him, not Dark Energy but something different. Nowhere near as powerful.

"Ah, Doctor." The man in red greeted the man that Harry had found in the holo-deck. "I'm sorry to call you away from your day off."

"What's the situation?" The Doctor asked ignoring the fact he was wearing swim shorts and a t-shirt.

"One of my sweeps stumbled across this boy in one of the out of the way corridors." The man with the strange energy told him. "He was unresponsive so we had him transported to med-bay."

"Doctor." The woman started respectfully even as the Doctor moved up to Harry's head and froze. "His heart is strong and steady and his breathing is shallow, as if he was asleep however he is non-responsive to the usual stimulants."

"We need to identify him as soon as possible and locate the group he arrived with." The man in red told the man with the strange energy.

"Harry..." The Doctor muttered with a frown making them all turn to look at him just as he looked up at them all.

"Doctor Bashire?" The man in red asked.

"Captain, I just met this boy." The Doctor looked confused. "I was talking to him not five minutes ago in the holo-deck. He just appeared, we thought he was a computer glitch at first but he was still there when we shut the programme down. He vanished into thin air just after you called me here."

"It could be a computer glitch." The man with the energy muttered. "Perhaps he was attempting to sabotage the computer system and it backfired and left him in this state."

"But how long ago did your team find him?" The Doctor asked.

"Approximately fifteen minutes ago." The man replied.

"Which means he didn't appear to us until after he was discovered." The Doctor pointed out. "This is a little confusing."

"Agreed." The man in red nodded. "Otto, post his picture on the station's live feed and see if we can find the group he was with. I'm not willing to jump to the conclusion that he was attempting to tamper with our computer system."

"He definitely didn't seem hostile when I saw him in the holo-deck. Whatever it was I saw in there." Bashire pointed out.

"I'll have Jed check the holo-deck's records. I'd like to take a look at that conversation myself." The man in red nodded. "Doctor, see if you can find a way to wake him up. We may get more comprehensive answers from him."

"Yes, Captain." Bashire nodded.

"Let's get this dealt with quickly." The Captain turned to leave the room. Harry followed the Captain out of the med-lab knowing that they wouldn't be able to wake him up until he decided to put himself in the body. The Captain went up to what seemed to be a bridge like the _Enterprise's_ but it was focused on the centre rather than the front and was a darker colour. The Captain walked over to a woman with peculiar black spots down the side of her face and caught her attention. "We've got a guest in the med-bay who seemed to be able to appear on the holo-deck even after Otto found him unconscious and transported him to med-bay. I'd like for you to have a look at the record from the holo-deck and see what you can find out."

"I'll see what I can do." She told him taking in the strange circumstances. Harry lingered with her while the Captain stood nearby and he watched as she tapped away at her computer. It was a while later, Harry wasn't really sure how long when a man called to the Captain as he came out of the elevator that had brought them up to the Bridge earlier. He was wearing yellow and had a tool kit around his waist. Harry thought he looked familiar but then again they were humans, they all looked familiar. They all had two ears, two eyes and so on.

"Captain. I think you might like to know something." The man told the Captain as he came up between the woman with the black spots and the Captain.

"What is it, Miles?" He asked.

"The boy in the med bay, the one you had Otto post the picture of to try to find who he came here with? Well I know who he is." Miles said.

"Who is it?" The Captain pressed when Miles paused.

"You remember two years ago there was the attack on Earth from that Dark Matter cloud?" Miles started and received two nods. "Well I was on the _Enterprise_ at the time and we had a visitor for a week before the attack."

"Yes, I remember reading about him." The Captain nodded. "Gave everyone quite the scare. Part of the Dark Matter cloud if I remember. A sentience."

"Well, Captain." Miles winced. "That boy in the infirmary is him."

"What?" The Captain looked at him.

"I've no doubt about it, Captain." Miles told him. "I was the transport engineer who first beamed him on board from the middle of space and realised he was alive. I couldn't forget that face given my whole life time."

"That was what interrupted the battle with the Marquis, Captain." The woman spoke up. "Remember we couldn't pick it up on sensors except for as a void. It matches what I read. It must have followed us here."

"There's no telling how much damage that thing could do to the station." The Captain sighed. "Send a message to all nearby ships and to Starfleet headquarters and notify them of its presence here."

Harry had to wonder how long they'd keep calling him an it. It was starting to get on his nerves.

"I'd recommend trying to contact the _Enterprise_ as well, Captain." Miles suggested. "And if you can then Wesley Crusher."

"Doctor Crusher's son?" The Captain asked. "What does he have to do with it?"

"Well he didn't keep calling me 'it' for starters." Harry said as he appeared behind them making all three of them spin around.

"Sorry." The woman said without really thinking about it.

"How did you get out of med-bay without anyone noticing?" The Captain asked.

"Sir?" Miles spoke quietly. "I don't think he's really here. His body is probably still down in med-bay but he can project himself elsewhere. That's how he started off on the _Enterprise_ too."

Harry tilted his head slightly and grinned. "Actually this is me. The body's the extension but you can have a cookie anyway. That's a strange saying. I don't have any cookies and neither did that woman that I heard it from."

The Captain's eyebrows shot up but it was Miles that spoke. "Captain, this is Harry. Harry this is the Captain of Deep Space Nine. Captain Benjamin Sisko."

"What's Deep Space Nine?" Harry asked.

"This station." The Captain told him.

"Hey, you answered my question. I think I like you." Harry grinned. "You know how many people ignore my questions? It's not like they're difficult."

"He had a lot of questions the last time I saw him too." Miles said.

"Are you going to call Wes?" Harry asked. "I haven't spoken to him in... uh..."

"It's been two years." Miles told him.

"What are years?" Harry asked.

"Oh..." Miles winced. "I suppose that concept isn't really important to you, is it? How about this? Wesley was sixteen years old when you met him and now he's eighteen years old. People live to about eighty."

"What's old mean?" Harry asked.

"Perhaps some of these questions can wait for another time?" The Captain suggested. "Or perhaps, Mr. O'Brian, you could take Harry here somewhere to stay and answer all of his questions while I contact Mr. Crusher?"

"Okay." Harry nodded and vanished letting his essence compact down and settle into the body he'd created for himself.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Med Bay**

Harry's eyes shot open the a little machine behind him started beeping rapidly. Harry sat up and turned to look at it in confusion distracted from the new sensations by the machine. Rapid footsteps made Harry turn to see Doctor Bashire and the woman that had been in here before. "Is it trying to say something?" Harry asked, glancing back at the machine.

"It registers mental patterns." Doctor Bashire moved to his side and put a hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you lie back down and let me take a look at you?"

"Why do I have to lie down for that?" Harry asked. "Do your eyes not work from where you were?"

The woman snorted in amusement and Harry grinned at her and turned back to the machine. "What are mental patterns?" He asked.

"They're your brain waves." Bashire told him. "The machine reads them so we know how active your brain is."

"Waves are for water though aren't they?" Harry asked. "Like the ones on the beach in the holo-deck. How are they in my head?"

"It's a different kind of wave." Bashire sighed. "It's a frequency."

"Oh like the weapon they used against me. That had different frequencies." Harry nodded in understanding.

"Someone used a weapon against you?" Bashire asked looking at the woman who moved forwards with a scanner which bleeped as it scanned him.

"Is that machine talking to the other one?" Harry asked looking between the two.

"In a way." The woman smiled at him, slightly amused by his reactions to things. "They're not talking directly but both of them are talking to the core computer which feeds them both."

"Feeds them what?" Harry asked.

"Information." She smiled.

"Oh." Harry grinned. "Can I talk to the core one?"

"Not directly but you can ask it to do things for you." She told him.

"Like turning the room red?" Harry asked straightening up with a grin.

"What?" She frowned in confusion.

"He did it in the holo-deck." Bashire explained. "That doesn't work out here." He said to Harry.

"It should." Harry grumbled. "That would be more interesting."

The woman laughed. "It would indeed."

"_Doctor Bashire, Chief O'Brien."_ A voice spoke and Harry tilted his head noticing that the comm. badge was now on the Doctor's uniform and not his shorts. _"Is our patient awake?"_

"Yes, as a matter of fact he is." Bashire answered after touching the little badge. "How did you know?"

"_He just left here."_ The Chief answered. _"I'll be right down."_

"Why did you change?" Harry asked.

"I can't really work in just swim shorts." Bashire told him.

"But you looked good like that." Harry told him and to his surprise he blushed. "Why are you blushing?"

"You're not supposed to say things like that." The woman told him.

"Why not?" Harry asked. "He did." She giggled and cast a glance at Bashire who merely went even redder. They were saved from any further embarrassment when Miles walked in.

"Chief O'Brien!" Bashire greeted. "Thank god, he doesn't stop answering questions."

"Yes well, we're better off answering them. He nearly blew up the _Enterprise_ when Captain Picard ordered us to ignore him." Miles told him.

"I wasn't going to blow it up." Harry crossed his arms over his chest. "I just didn't like being ignored. All I was doing was asking a few questions."

"Generally it's polite to say hello first and introduce yourself before you start asking questions." Miles told him.

"Why?" Harry said.

"Well think of it this way." The woman started. "The most important question you can ask a person is who they are."

Harry looked at her and tilted his head before deciding to just go along with it. "Who are you?"

She laughed. "There are nicer ways to ask. Like 'What's your name?'" She told him. "But my name is Elizabeth."

"Hello, Elizabeth." Harry grinned. "Is that better?"

"Much better." Elizabeth nodded. "And what's your name?"

"Harry." Harry announced with a grin.

"And Harry, how did you end up here?" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't understand." Harry frowned. "I just came here."

"Okay, which ship did you come here one?" She asked.

"Uh, Lizzy." Miles interrupted her.

"Who's Lizzy?" Harry looked around.

"That's me." Elizabeth told him.

"But you said your name was Elizabeth." Harry frowned.

"Lizzy is just short for Elizabeth." She told him. "What is it, Miles?"

"He was about to tell you that I didn't come on a ship." Harry told her and jumped up from the bed and stretched. "Can we go look around now, Miles?" Harry asked. "And when's Wesley getting here?"

"We can go walk around if you like." Miles nodded. "And Wesley is a long way away. It'll take him about a month to reach here."

"A month?" Harry frowned. "Why?"

"We can't travel as fast as you." Miles pointed out.

"Uh, Miles, what are you talking about?" Bashire asked.

"Harry isn't human." Miles told them. "He's a being created from Dark Energy to interact with us. Somewhere out there is a big cloud of Dark Matter floating around space and he can just come here and talk to us."

"Actually that's not entirely true." Harry told him. "I'm all in here."

"You condensed yourself down?" Miles asked. "How come your body isn't disappearing to sensors then?"

"Because I don't want it to." Harry told him. "Or I'd take all the energy from this place and then I'd have no one to talk to."

"How about we go for that walk, Harry?" Miles suggested when Bashire and Elizabeth stared at him in shock.

"Okay." Harry nodded and almost ran to the door. "Did I scare them?" Harry asked Miles uncaring about whether the others heard or not.

"Perhaps a little." Miles laughed.

"Why do you find it funny that they're scared?" Miles asked. "Don't you like them?"

"Oh I do." Miles assured him. "But it's still a little funny."

"Humans are strange." Harry announced.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**An hour later**

"So, what do you want to eat, Harry?" Miles asked as soon as he'd sat down.

Harry grinned. "I haven't eaten in ages! Can I have that breakfast that Wesley gave me?"

"What did it have in it?" Miles asked.

"Waffles." Harry grinned. "And Bananas and Chocolate!"

"I think that can be arranged." Miles laughed before turning to talk to a waitress that passed the table. Harry looked around at all the people and only looked back at Miles when he asked a question. "Do you have to eat?"

Harry bit his lip before shaking his head vigorously. "I get hungry though when I'm like this."

"Like this?" Miles asked. Harry pointed to himself. "Oh, you mean in a human body."

Harry nodded again. "Where's everyone else?" Harry asked.

"You mean Captain Picard and the rest of the crew?" Miles asked and Harry nodded. "Many of them are on different ships now but Captain Picard is retired. Commander Riker is Captain of the _Enterprise_ now."

"What about Wesley?" Harry asked.

"You really have a thing for him don't you?" Miles asked with a chuckle.

"Why are you laughing and what do you mean, a thing?" Harry frowned.

"I'm laughing because it's funny." Miles told him without really explaining anything. "And by a thing a mean that you like him. Do you have a crush on him?"

"Crush on him?" Harry frowned again. "Why would I want to crush him?"

Miles sighed. "You're attracted to him. You like his personality."

"Yeah!" Harry finally grasped what he was saying and grinned. "I like being around Wesley, he makes me laugh."

"Well he's at the academy on Earth at the moment." Miles told him. "I was going to send him a message about your arrival but I figured you'd head there straight away anyway and it won't do you any good for him to come this way and you miss each other."

"Maybe I should go to Earth then?" Harry suggested. "That sounds like fun."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Sol**

Harry slowed at the first sign of a spaceship but it was going in the opposite direction so fast that Harry pondered whether to follow it or continue on his way. In the end it came down to where Wesley was and he decided to let it hurry away and continued on at a slower speed towards the blue, white and green ball that was Earth. He slowed to a halt between the moon and the planet and didn't really care that to the people on the planet the moon had just vanished from both sensors and their eyes. There were a lot of ships around, almost too many for Harry to count and he enjoyed the vast number of them for a while, flitting around between them as they saw him and dodged him and then two big ships like the_ Enterprise _appeared and sat in front of him. Harry flitted towards them but they didn't move, they weren't playing his game.

Harry stopped and roiled before beginning to condense a little of himself down. He didn't completely vanish like he normally did but merely reached out with a small amount of himself and formed a body down on the planet reminding himself at the last moment that he'd need clothing so he gave himself black jeans and a dark red hoodie like he normally did. Again forgoing boxers, t-shirt, socks and shoes. He placed himself straight into his body and found himself looking up at a bright sky and a number of human faces staring down at him. They looked confused.

Harry grinned and sat up and looked around. He was on a road with buildings down both sides and as he looked around a small ship flew over head. For a moment he thought it was enormous because it was bigger than him but then he remembered that it was all relative to his size and he was only the size of a human now.

"Are you alright, kid?" One of them asked him. A man with grey hair.

"Of course." Harry frowned at him, wondering why he'd be checking he was alright. He patted himself down and looked down at himself to check that he'd made himself right. "Did I get something wrong?"

"I only meant that people don't normally just transport down into the middle of the street." The man told him.

Harry perked up. "You mean with those sparkly lights. I like that."

"I think we should get you to a hospital." The man told him. "Get someone to have a look at you. What do you say?"

"Say?" Harry frowned. "I don't understand."

The man looked confused for a moment and glanced at the crowd growing around them. A woman stepped forwards. "He means to say would you like to go to the hospital?"

"Not really." Harry told her. "I'd rather go find Wesley."

"Wesley?" She asked. "Is he a friend of yours?"

Harry nodded enthusiastically. "He's on Earth." Harry told her brightly. "Will you help me find him?"

"Of course." She nodded. "What's his second name?"

"I think he only has one name." Harry frowned. "Why would he need another one?"

"Most people have two names. The second one is a family name that all of their family go after." She said.

"Oh, that's Crusher. His mum's Beverley Crusher and he's Wesley Crusher so it must be Crusher." Harry grinned before jumping to his feet and looking around as if he'd appear. "Do you know where he is?"

"I'm sure I can help you find him." The woman announced. "If you're sure you don't want to go to the hospital first?"

"Wesley." Harry grinned making his decision and turning in a full circle as if to find out where he was heading. The crowd seemed to be starting to lose interest and the only thing that had kept their attention had been Harry's rather odd personality and appearance. "Can we go find him now?"

She nodded. "Why don't you follow me?"

"Okay." Harry said and followed her down the street. She walked into one of the buildings and Harry saw an array of small tables and a bar type thing against one of the walls that was covered in food. "Is this like ten-forward?" Harry asked.

"Ten-forward?" She frowned. "I don't think I've ever heard of that."

"It was on the _Enterprise._" Harry told her as if it was obvious. "That's where everyone went to eat."

"Ah, I see. Then yes, this is like that." She nodded and moved to the counter. "Daniel, could I borrow your computer terminal for a few minutes. This lad seems to be a little lost and is searching for someone."

"Of course, Nat." The woman behind the counter nodded and turned a screen over the counter. The woman guiding him pressed a small button on the corner before speaking. "Computer, run a search for Wesley Crusher." She ordered.

"Are you talking to the computer?" Harry asked with a grin. "Can you make it turn the room red?"

She was clearly shocked by that idea and turned to look at him. "Uh..." She frowned before realising what he was getting at. "You mean a holo-suite. That won't work here I'm afraid. You need special rooms."

"Oh." Harry bit his lip and stuffed his hands into the pocket on the front of his hoodie. "How does it know where Wesley is?"

"Everybody has a comms badge and they can be tracked by anyone if you turn on that feature." She explained. "If he's got it set like that then the computer will be able to find him."

Harry grinned just as the computer came to life and spoke. _"Wesley Crusher is currently in Starfleet Academy, research division. Would you like to contact him?"_

The woman glanced at Harry who shook his head. "I want to surprise him." Harry declared happily and any suspicion this might have brought about faded with his attitude. "Can you take me to it?"

"I can show you to the shuttle that'll take you there." She told him.

"What's a shuttle?" Harry asked and she sighed dramatically and motioned for him to follow her again. He did so and she led him through the buildings to a strange building with lots of little ships flying out of it.

"Those are shuttles." She told him. "Let's go find the one that'll take you to the right place."

She asked a few people while trying to keep an eye on Harry who was amazed by all of the decorations around the large building and all the doors to the shuttles that kept opening and shutting to let people on an off. She eventually led Harry to a shuttle entrance with quite a few people Wesley's age standing around with small bags and wearing grey uniforms like he had. Harry made to ask them if they knew where Wesley was when his guide touched his arm. "Just stay on this shuttle until it tells you you're at the research centre and then ask one of the security guards there if they could help you find him. Don't disturb any of the groups of people dressed like this."

Harry looked at her and smile. "Thank you." He told her remembering to be polite.

"You're welcome." She nodded and Harry knew that that was part of the ritual. With that the doors to the shuttle opened and all of the uniformed people started getting into the shuttle. His guide motioned for him to hurry and Harry ducked inside and looked around even as the shuttle door shut behind him with a hiss. Harry looked at all of the occupants who were all looking at him strangely.

"Are you heading for the Academy?" One boy asked him.

"I'm going to find Wesley Crusher." Harry declared with a grin. The small group eyed him strangely. "What are you looking at me like for?"

There was a small movement and the shuttle launched itself and Harry went to the window ignoring the snickers from behind him as he looked down at the sprawling cities on the surface. They were so much prettier than any of the other worlds he'd seen before.

"You don't look the type to be going to the Academy." One of the boys spoke up and Harry turned to look at him. "Aren't you going to learn there?"

"What would I learn?"

"How to go up into space." The boy frowned at him as if he was mad.

"But I can already do that." Harry tilted his head. "That's easy."

Harry looked out of the window again as the shuttle approached a big building surrounded on three sides by ocean. "Do they have beaches here?" Harry asked.

"Of course they have beaches." The boy frowned at him. "Where do you come from anyway?"

"Europe." Harry said with a grin.

All of them looked at him strangely at that. "Did you hit your head or something? There hasn't been a Europe for hundreds of years."

"Why would that stop me from coming from there?" Harry asked just as the shuttle landed and the door opened.

"I think you should get yourself checked out by a doctor." The boy told him as they all left. Harry listened to the ship tell him that they were at the Academy and that if he stayed on they'd stop at the research centre next and went back to looking out of the window as the shuttle took off again and took him on a short ride across the ground to a sprawling but decorative building.

Harry got off and the shuttle closed and took off behind him leaving Harry standing on a large piece of concrete. He flexed his toes, feeling the hard surface before heading towards the man in yellow that was standing watching him. "Can I help you?" The man asked after eyeing his bare feet and strange clothing.

"I'm looking for Wesley Crusher." Harry said with a grin. "The woman in the town said to ask a security guard to help me find him. Are you a security guard?"

"I am. I'm afraid we've got a small situation right now." The man told him.

"What situation?" Harry asked.

"The Fleet is confronting an intruder into the solar system." The man told him. "Everybody is busy with that at the moment."

"It's not going to do anything though." Harry told him knowing that the man was talking about himself. "Can't you just call Wesley?"

The man sighed but shrugged and tapped the comms badge on his chest. "Security point three to Wesley Crusher." The badge beeped and then beeped again.

"_Security, this is Wesley Crusher."_

"I have a man here asking to see you." The man said as Harry grinned at hearing Wesley's voice again.

"_Could you send him into the main lobby, I'll meet him there."_ Wesley announced and Harry grinned at the security man in victory.

"Just head down this path and through the large glass doors. Wait in there until you have an escort and a pass through to the labs." The security man told him. "And I'd suggest getting yourself some shoes to wear if you're going in there."

"Why?" Harry asked. "What's wrong with bare feet?"

"You might get hurt." The man told him.

"But it would only be temporary. I can heal them quickly." Harry announced before thanking the man even as he looked confused. Harry walked past him and almost jogged towards the large building and through the big glass doors. He stood around for a few minutes before he spotted Wesley as he came through a door on the right on the large lobby. "Wesley!" He shouted and ran over with a grin and hugged the boy who was slightly older now.

"Harry?" Wesley gasped and pushed him away. "You haven't changed a bit."

"Yes I have. I'm more powerful now." Harry declared.

Wesley laughed. "I mean this body of yours."

"Don't you like it?" Harry asked and bit his lip. "Should I change it?"

"No, Harry. It's fine." Wesley laughed and hugged him again. "Would you believe I missed you? Where have you been?"

"I had to go find out what I could do." Harry told him. "And then I went exploring but the Romulans were mean to me and then the human ships were shooting at each other. Then I was at Deep Space Nine with Miles O'Brien and then I came here."

"And you're scaring the entire of Starfleet you know." Wesley laughed.

"Why am I scaring them?" Harry asked looking around the lobby.

"I mean that big cloud up between us and the moon." Wesley took Harry's hand and started dragging him away. "They've had all of us on alert about you up there."

"Didn't you recognise me?" Harry asked, almost upset.

"I did." Wesley assured him as they entered a lift. "Main control room." Wesley ordered the lift which shot into motion. "But there are some people that don't think we should trust you to not hurt us. The Romulans sent a message about your attack on them."

"They shot me!" Harry declared and crossed his arms. "I was only trying to say hello!"

"You do have a rather unique way of saying hello." Wesley announced just as the doors opened and two security guards blocked the way.

"Sorry, sir." One spoke. "But the computer states that your guest doesn't have the correct clearance to come in here."

"Get Doctor Jenners over here." Wesley called.

"Wesley?" A man asked coming into view around the two security guards. "You should know better than to bring someone down here without permission."

"Sorry, Doctor." Wesley apologised.

"What's wrong with me coming down here?" Harry asked.

"This is a restricted area." The doctor told him. "Wesley, who is this?"

"Uh, Doctor?" Wesley blushed all of a sudden and Harry looked at him with a grin before looking behind the doctor as Wesley tried to find a simple way to explain who Harry was. On the screen that took up one of the walls of the large room filled with people.

"Hey look, Wesley!" Harry grinned at his friend. "It's me!" Wesley laughed as the Doctor and the two security guards turned to look at where Harry was pointing. "See, that was easy."

"Harry!" Wesley stared at him as he realised that Harry had faked his astonishment to show them who he was.

"That's impossible!" The doctor turned on Wesley.

Harry frowned at him. "Why's it impossible?" He asked.

"It's..." The doctor frowned and glanced over his shoulder at the screen again and then back to Harry. They had the attention of the entire room now, almost forty humans staring at them. "It's..."

"Why's he having trouble speaking, Wes?" Harry turned to his friend.

"It's not every day that the head of the Dark Matter Science division has the chance to talk to the very thing he's been studying for the last two years." Wesley told him.

"Thing?" Harry looked at him in horror. "Why are you being mean to me? Captain Sisko kept calling me that. I didn't like it."

Wesley touched his arm with a smile. "Sorry, but you're kind of hard to explain?"

"Why's that?" Harry asked in surprise. "I'm a fabrication created out of Dark Matter to temporarily house my mind."

Wesley stared at him and the doctor gaped in fascination. "Well, when you put it like that..." Wesley trailed off.

"So, Wes?" Harry asked suddenly. "Can we go do something fun? Can we go to a beach? Doctor Bashire was on the beach in that holodeck thing and he looked really nice without a shirt on but then they found my body and he had to go and he put a shirt on. I think you'd look really good without a shirt on. Can we go to a beach?"

Wesley gasped and went bright red as he stared at Harry in astonishment before turning to the doctor. "I'm sorry, Sir. He's a little on the random side."

"Now that's mean." Harry grumbled.

"Mr. Crusher." The Doctor finally spoke. "Why don't you find somewhere for your friend to rest and something for him to eat?"

"Can we go to the beach?" Harry asked eagerly.

"How about I take you back to my apartment for the time being?" Wesley asked. "At least until Starfleet find out about you being here and everyone calms down a little?"

Harry grinned at him. "Let's go."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

"Wesley, I'm bored." Harry declared from his place sitting cross legged on the sofa that sat under the large windows of Wesley's apartment. He'd spent quite a while looking out of the window at the city that stretched out below the high window with all the dots of bright green and blue of lakes and ponds. Wesley had stopped coming to the window to tell him what each little thing was about half an hour into it though and had spent most of his time talking into a screen that had also bored Harry after a while.

Wesley was being very polite to the people but he was also getting a little tired of it himself and Harry quickly realised that he was being treated like a child that didn't know how best to do something. Harry was getting annoyed on Wesley's behalf. Wesley glanced at him at the comment but had already told Harry that unless you were standing right in front of the screen the person on the other side couldn't hear you.

"Ensign Crusher. We not all that convinced that you know the best way to handle this entity." The woman on the screen announced. "There are tests that should be run..."

"With all due respect Admiral, he's a person and not an entity. One that saved the Earth."

"From his own kind." She pointed out succinctly.

"Wesley, just turn her off." Harry told his friend seriously. "Can't we do something else?"

"Harry, shush." Wesley snapped and Harry blinked and closed his mouth, hurt. Wesley winced but had to turn back to the screen. "Admiral, it's wrong to force him to undergo tests."

"He's capable of crippling our entire fleet, Ensign." The Admiral told him harshly. "And his decision to befriend you does not give you any leverage in this decision making process."

"Then maybe..." Wesley's mouth clicked shut as the screen flickered and then died follow quickly by the lights. His head turned to the sulking Harry and his eyes widened. Harry crossed his arms over his chest and realised that he was emitting waves of Dark Energy that was shutting down any technology in the area. "Harry! You know how much trouble I'll get in? She'll think I cut her off?"

"This isn't fun, Wesley." Harry told him.

"We can't have fun all the time, Harry!" Wesley almost shouted. "I have a life to live and it doesn't revolve around you all the time. I can't just drop everything and my superiors need me to answer questions about you."

"So you're only staying with me to find out the answers?" Harry asked. "That's how it works isn't it? They ask questions and you give answers? I thought we were friends."

"Do you even know what being friends means, Harry?" Wesley waved his arms and Harry stood up and the air rippled with angry energy. If either of them were to look out of the window they would see all of the lights down below shutting off and everything power driven dying. "Aren't I just an interesting toy to you?"

"I just want to understand you." Harry told him quietly.

"And I'm just a way to understand us, aren't I?" Wesley snarled. "You don't care about me in particular."

"I said I want to understand you." Harry repeated.

"I know that!" Wesley rolled his eyes.

"Don't do that." Harry told him. "I'm not stupid."

"Well you like to act it. If you want to understand the human race then go understand it from someone else." Wesley snapped and Harry was shocked to see a tear in his eye and he frowned.

"I said I wanted to understand _you._" Harry stressed. "I like you."

Wesley's eyes widened but before he could voice his realisation his body turned into lights and he vanished. Harry looked around in surprise. "Since when can Wesley teleport?" Harry frowned before looking out of the window at the growing mass of Dark Energy. He needed to return to the main part of him, all this energy was becoming a problem.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

End Chapter


	5. The Lost

Darkness in the Void

Chapter 5; The Lost

**Earth Orbit**

Harry pulled himself slightly further away from the blue and green ball that was Earth. In this form, without restraining himself he flowed thickly about half the size of the Earth itself. He could spread out to a much larger size and could lay a thin form of himself over the entire Sol Sun if he wanted to, trigger an explosion in its core and absorb all of the power. All of it himself, he could feel the thrill of the power of something as powerful as himself. It would remove the pain that he felt after Wesley's angry tirade at him.

He turned his attention from the Earth and it's fragile bubble of atmosphere and to the thirty odd ships hovering in an arc around him. As he retreated slightly from the planet some of the little ships moved between him and the Earth. They wanted to herd him as if he were just a beast. It made him want to cry but he couldn't do that in this form. Then he remembered that Wesley had been crying when he'd thought Harry was interested more in humans in general than in Wesley. He didn't care about the human race much anymore, only in Wesley and maybe finding something interesting to watch. Something new, something that the humans on Earth in their ships couldn't try to protect themselves from.

He didn't know how long he'd hovered above Earth when something drew his attention. A little ship was heading in towards him, escaping from the curtain of bigger ships. It approached slowly without shields and Harry ebbed in curiously and flowed towards the little shuttle. It stopped abruptly as if the shuttle itself had realised that Harry was focused on it but it didn't retreat and within seconds Harry flowed around it, swallowing it up.

He concentrated on what he wanted his body to look like remembering black jeans and a red hoodie once again, creating a body inside the little metal box and putting a small part of himself into it. Enough to control it and have a few tricks but not enough to make his body invisible to their sensors.

He opened his physical eyes to find himself in a dark space with only the light of a small red strip running along the top of the windows. He could see a figure sitting in the seat in front of him and as he took a deep experimental breath the person spun around and Harry smiled at Wesley but it was a strained smile.

"I'm sorry I left so suddenly, Harry." Wesley told him. "They were losing me on sensors so thought it better to transport me out before they lost me completely."

"Why are the humans here so interested in experimenting on me, Wes?" Harry asked. "Even now they are sending an energy pulse into me to try to reach you."

"They don't want to hurt you, Harry." Wesley leaned forwards in the seat, resting his elbows on his knees. "They are afraid that you're not what you seem and will damage Earth. They don't trust you like I do."

"Why do you trust me, Wes?" Harry asked with a tilted head, not moving towards him in the darkness.

"You're so strange, Harry." Wesley chuckled. "But I don't see anything dangerous in you. I've never felt anything but safe with you. You're so calm all the time and I've noticed that you've only ever done things to discover and not to harm. I told them all of that and they let me come to speak to you."

"Do you like it here, Wes?" Harry asked.

"What do you mean?" Wesley frowned.

"Here, with the humans. Do you like it?" Harry prompted.

"I want to learn about science." Wesley told him. "I want to be able to explore the galaxy, learn about new cultures and civilisations. They give me that chance."

"What if I give you that chance?" Harry suggested. "If you come with me we can go further and faster than any of the human ships. You'd be safe with me. You could explore with me. I don't like it here anymore, too many of them want to dissect me."

"Dissect you?" Wesley frowned but Harry didn't answer him but used his mind to make his larger self outside move away from the shuttle. The lights and consoles flickered back up and Harry tucked his hands away in the front pocket of his hoodie as Wesley studied him, looking over every part of Harry surprisingly making Harry flush slightly, feeling heat rising to his skin throughout his frailer human body. He felt a sudden urge to be close to Wesley, to feel his skin and have Wesley touch him.

"You won't forget that I have to eat right?" Wesley asked. Harry cocked his head but then nodded to promise that he'd make sure they ate. "I have to send my mother a message."

"Nothing electronic you send can get through. And if I let something out they'll be able to transport you away again." Harry frowned.

"We'll leave the message in a probe here." Wesley explained before turning to write the message and set up the probe. When he was done Harry knew that a small metal contraption had been launched. "How are we going to leave?" Wesley asked after a few minutes.

Harry sat down in the other pilot's seat and crossed his legs on the seat so he was sitting cross-legged. "The same way I got the _Enterprise_ here when your engines were damaged." Harry told him. "Except I can do it better now."

"How fast can we go?" Wesley looked excited.

"I don't know." Harry frowned. "I've never tried it before. I don't go very fast normally. Where do you want to go?"

"Will it take long to get to the Delta Quadrant?" Wesley asked.

"Where's that?" Harry frowned.

"The other side of this Galaxy." Wesley explained. "One of our ships got sent there by accident. I thought we could go find it."

"Let's find out." Harry grinned suddenly. "Ready?"

"As ready as I can be." Wesley smiled. Harry focused outwards, almost leaving his body entirely. His larger self roiled around them, soaking into the outer hull of the shuttle and into the warp core. He focused in the right direction and the shuttle hummed as it streaked away into the stars leaving nothing behind but a small metal probe with a message for Wesley's mother promising that he'd return one day with news of what was out there.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**The next morning**

Wesley woke up and quickly sat up when the events of the day before came back to him. He'd been so tired after they'd jumped to an unbelievable speed that he'd merely come back into the recreation area and bedded down for some sleep. Harry had followed him to the point where the cockpit raised up slightly between two engineering consoles to the recreation area but had just watched in silence as Wesley had laid down and fallen asleep. Strangely enough Harry had understood that Wesley just needed rest and he hadn't said anything to disturb him and although Wesley had known that Harry was staring at him it hadn't prevented him from sleeping.

"Harry?" Wesley asked in the dark room. There was no light whatsoever and it was next to impossible to see anything except for the few blinking red lights across the top of the front console. Black out emergency lighting. Harry had probably asked the ship to darken as much as possible and this was the lowest you could set the lights without any knowledge of how the ship actually worked. Apart from that there was a strange glow emanating from the front windows and that was enough to lead Wesley forwards and into the pilot's seat. There was no sign of Harry if you didn't count the massive cloud surrounding the ship and Wesley stared at the writhing mass outside. From outside the cloud, outside Harry, it was a void, a darkness only really visible when something vanished behind it or when there was an explosion within but from the inside there was a glow that seemed to ebb and twist. Wesley had never noticed that before but it was strangely beautiful.

"Computer?" Wesley asked. "Bring up the lights to normal night mode." The lights raised up to normal red strip lighting. "Computer? Has there been anyone inside apart from me since I boarded?"

"Information incomplete." The computer told him.

"Explain." Wesley ordered partly confused and partly amused. Only Harry could confuse a computer.

"Sensors have detected no other life sign but that of Wesley Crusher however voice commands were received from an unknown source." The computer told him.

Wesley chuckled. "What's funny?" Harry's voice made him jump and spin around looking at Harry standing just between the two engineering consoles.

"You managed to confuse the computer." Wesley explained. "It took your orders but couldn't sense you."

"Is that my fault?" Harry asked innocently.

"No." Wesley smiled and spun the seat and motioned to Harry. Harry frowned in confusion at the come hither gesture. "I'm asking if you want to sit in my lap." Wesley explained.

"Why?" Harry frowned but stepped forwards, clearly wanting to but uncertain about the reasoning behind such a thing.

"Let's try this." Wesley bit his lip. "What would you feel if you sat in my lap?"

"Uh..." Harry bit his own lip. "You?"

"Would you like to feel me?" Wesley asked.

"You mean I can touch you?" Harry asked.

"If you want to." Wesley nodded. "Do you?"

Harry nodded and Wesley made the same 'come-hither' gesture. Harry moved over nervously and before he could think about it too much Wesley grabbed him and sat him down. Harry ended up sitting sideways on his lap with Wesley's arms around him. "Do you like this?" Wesley asked. Harry nodded. Wesley paused but figured he might as well make a move. He pushed at Harry's torso before Harry could get comfortable and then unzipped and pulled off his grey uniform jacket baring his exposed chest. He threw the jacket over the engineering consoles into the other area.

"Why did you do that?" Harry asked. "Is it too hot in here?"

"Would you rather touch my jacket or my skin?" Wesley asked wanting to make Harry want human things. He liked Harry too much and this innocence was killing him. He hadn't been able to stop thinking about him for years. Harry twisted his torso so that he was facing Wesley directly and reached out with his hands, touching Wesley's abs with his fingertips then put his palms flat on his stomach. "You're warm." Wesley told him. "I remember you being cold."

"I thought about being warm so I am." Harry told him. "It's just burning energy just like you do. I can absorb your heat when you waste it if I wanted to."

"Do you?" Wesley asked in curiosity.

"It's not really that much." Harry shook his head.

"Here, let's get this off of you." Wesley tugged at the bottom of Harry's customary red hoodie and Harry straightened up, holding his arms up so that Wesley could pull the thick garment over his head and throw it to the side. Harry's own torso was just as it had been two years ago when Wesley had almost made the mistake of taking off his jeans and Wesley touched him gently on the stomach copying the motion. Harry shivered but a smile bloomed across his face.

"I don't remember being touched when I was human." Harry frowned. "I'd forgotten it was so nice."

"Come here." Wesley commanded and wrapped his arms around Harry pulling the smaller boy-turned-immortal against his chest, putting his side in contact with his own skin. Harry felt the warmth and the soft feeling of Wesley's skin and turned into him pressing his face into Wesley's left pec and putting his arms around him. "Thanks for letting me sleep." Wesley told him after a few minutes

Harry didn't look up as he spoke. "I remembered that you need sleep more than I do when I'm in this form." Harry told him. "You'll have to tell me when you need to sleep."

"You don't have to leave though, Harry." Wesley told him. "I really like you and I want to be close to you."

"Can you sleep when we're like this?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Of course though it's more comfortable lying down and we can do it with less clothing on." Wesley told him. "It's more comfortable without this stuff on." Wesley told him fingering the strange, hard, material that made up Harry's jeans.

"Don't humans do other stuff in bed when they're naked?" Harry asked looking up.

Wesley swallowed before looking down wondering how he was supposed to explain that in terms that Harry could understand but Harry was wearing an amused expression that turned into a smirk. Wesley choked. "You little devil." Wesley laughed.

"I've seen people do it enough." Harry told him. "Me and you, are we like that?"

"I don't know." Wesley shook his head. "Friends don't just do stuff like that. You have to really like the other person to have sex."

"Do you like me like that?" Harry asked still staring up into Wesley's eyes.

Wesley swallowed again but nodded. "Yeah, Harry, I do."

Harry grinned and buried his head in Wesley's chest again, getting even closer if that was even possible. "Good. I do too."

"Is that strange for you?" Wesley asked after a moment.

Harry straightened up and turned to look at Wesley directly. "Maybe you're a little frail but..."

"But..." Wesley prompted.

"You're more interesting than anything else I've ever met." Harry told him. "Isn't that what it's about. Liking someone? I mean I can go see anything I want but I only want to be around you. The rest doesn't amaze me as much anymore unless I can show it to you."

"I think that's exactly what it's about." Wesley smiled and let Harry lean into him again. They sat there as Wesley spun around to look out of the front of the ship. It was odd, he could hear that the small shuttle was at warp by the look of the console settings but the navigational array was going crazy trying to find _anything_ outside of the shuttle. What was really strange was that there was no motion outside of the ship. Wesley was so used to watching the stars streak past the ship as they travelled at warp speed. To not have that and know that they were travelling just as fast as warp if not faster admittedly freaked him out a little. "Harry?"

"Hmm...?" Harry grumbled to show he was awake, an amusingly human reaction.

"How fast are we going?" Wesley asked.

"Uh...?" Harry's head twitched almost as if he had thought about sitting up but then decided that he liked lying like this. Wesley tightened his arms around Harry as if to show that he could talk from where he was. Wesley's hand fell to lie on Harry's chest and he stroked the skin just under Harry's bare right pec. Harry twitched at the sensation but didn't move away from his hand. "I don't really know in your terms. It doesn't really matter to me."

"Can you compare it to the speed compared to when you did this to the _Enterprise_?" Wesley asked.

"Uh, we could cover that same distance in a fortieth of the time." Harry told him and his frown was evident. "I think that's how it works. Does that make sense to you?"

"Perfectly." Wesley nodded. "We worked out how fast you made the _Enterprise_ move when the scientists started studying you as part of the Dark Matter research. Back then we travelled approximately warp twenty-five. That means we have to be travelling at about warp one thousand."

"Is that strange?" Harry asked.

"It's theoretically impossible to travel at anything over ten." Wesley frowned but Harry didn't notice. "But not unheard of. The _Voyager_ was caught in some sort of event and was thrown to the other side of the galaxy in a matter of minutes. That would have to be even in excess of what we're doing now."

Harry looked up but left his head on Wesley's chest. "Did you want to go faster?"

"You can go faster?" Wesley laughed before he could stop himself.

"Why's that funny?" Harry asked.

"It's just that this is amazing already, Harry." Wesley assured him kissing Harry on the lips before he could realise what he did. When he pulled back Harry was grinning happily.

"This speed is easy to maintain. I can talk to you and not really concentrate on what I left outside." Harry told him with a flushed look on his face from how they were sitting. "We can go faster if you want but we're going to be there soon anywhere."

"Where?" Wesley couldn't help but ask.

"The other side of the galaxy." Harry frowned as if that was obvious.

"Really!?" Wesley grinned happily. "Can you see anything outside of the ship?"

Harry nodded after a moment of confusion, deciphering what Wesley was asking. "There's lots out there. We past a few populated worlds and I had to change course but your ship didn't seem to mind. No ship like a human ship though. Is that what you want to find?"

"I think we should." Wesley nodded. "There are almost a hundred people on the _Voyager_ and we can't move this fast normally. We should help them get home so they can see their loved ones again."

Harry frowned at him. "I think I understand."

Wesley paused wondering if Harry really did but he doubted it. Harry didn't understand the concept of home and loved ones that well. "If I was back on Earth and you were out here what would you do?"

"I'd go to Earth." Harry told him. "So I can see you. Is that right?"

Wesley smiled. "Of course." He nodded tightening his arms briefly and stroking Harry's pec with his hand getting a pleased shiver from Harry. "It's the same with the crew on the _Voyager_." Wesley told him.

"They want to see people on Earth." Harry grinned knowing that he'd gotten it right.

"Do you have any way to track down the ship?" Wesley asked.

"Can't you just scan from them with the ship?" Harry asked.

"Even at long range the sensors don't have the power to do a decent sweep of the Delta Quadrant." Wesley explained. "This area of space." He continued when Harry looked up in confusion.

"But they can have enough power." Harry frowned at Wesley. "I can just feed energy into them. I'm good at picking up energy waves, all the sensor sweeps have energy in them that I can feed from. It's not Dark Energy though."

Wesley chuckled and kissed Harry's upturned face again lingering slightly longer this time. When he pulled away Harry had his eyes shut. "If you want to scan space I'll need to slow down. We're travelling too fast for your sensor sweeps to come back to us."

"Like shouting and running away from the echo?" Wesley grinned.

"Why would we shout at the _Voyager?"_ Harry frowned. "You can't hear anything in space."

Wesley laughed and pulled Harry back into him, turning him so his back was to his chest. He pressed his face into Harry's neck, breathing in the strange smell that emanated from the entity that he was falling in love with while his hands pressed on Harry's chest. Harry wrapped his own arms against Wesley's and leaned his head back so that Wesley could bury his face into his neck better.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**That night**

"Wesley?" Harry actually whined as he sat curled up in Wesley's lap while they sat still in space. "Why is this taking so long?" They'd been stationary for the last hour and the scan had only taken ten minutes after Wesley had finally managed to set it up to his satisfaction. He was quite picky about that sort of thing he had told Harry.

"Just doing the scan isn't everything, Harry." Wesley chuckled but he satisfied Harry's need for attention by pulling his hands back from the console and stroking his bare chest gently. Harry actually purred at the contact. "The ship's computer isn't designed to process the sheer amount of information from such a large scan."

Harry nestled closer into Wesley, shut his eyes and smelt Wesley's skin, savouring the warm air that hung around Wesley. Wesley worked with both hands at the console but twenty minutes later he sighed and relaxed back into the chair. Harry sat up and turned to look at Wesley properly. "You not find anything?"

"Nothing that could be the _Voyager_." Wesley sighed again in disappointment. Harry looked at him. "Let's move onto the next sector."

"How long will that take?" Harry asked.

"A few hours at the same speed as earlier." Wesley shrugged and tapped a few buttons, making the shuttle spin around and leap into Warp. Harry laid himself against Wesley's chest again and shut his eyes as instead of the acceleration decreasing it shot up past what was theoretically possible.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**A day later**

"Are you tired?" Harry asked after watching as Wesley had moved straight from eating to the bed he'd been in when they'd been travelling before. He really didn't know how long Wesley was supposed to stay awake for.

"I do need sleep." Wesley conceded and pulled his shirt over his head and laid back on the bed. Harry shifted from one foot to the other for a few seconds and Wesley lifted his head to look at him. "I'm not exhausted but I will be if we move on to the next area right now. We're safe from view right?"

Harry nodded and Wesley let his head fall back onto the bed before twisting his head to look at Harry still shifting nervously by the other side of the room. "Do you need sleep?" Wesley asked.

"I haven't used that much of my reserves." Harry shook his head. Wesley frowned glancing at the front windows which showed the ebbing black mass that swallowed the light that reached out from the cockpit windows. Harry shook his head again when Wesley turned back to him. "My body's reserve is dependent on how much I can give it when I create it but it's not linked to what I do with the rest of my reserve."

"So you only get tired when you use dark energy out of your body?" Wesley asked. "Like when you knocked the _Enterprise_ back through space out of danger?"

Harry nodded. "Can I still lie down with you though? I'll be quiet, you won't know I'm there!" He asked after a moment.

Wesley spun so he was sitting up and then stood and moved over to the replicator. "Large blanket." He intoned and quickly the replicator created a dark blue, soft looking blanket for him. He pulled it out and threw it onto the bed. "How about if I want to know you're there?" Wesley asked.

"I'm not sure what you mean." Harry frowned in confusion but his eyes widened when Wesley pulled off his uniform trousers and then his boxers showing more of him than Harry had ever seen though he'd seen plenty of humanoid creatures in a similar state. Wesley chuckled and moved closer to him and Harry looked up at his face, knowing that his human body was blushing but not being able to stop it from doing so. Wesley's hands quickly moved to the top of his jeans, the only article of clothing he was wearing and quickly undid the button and pushed them down to the floor before pulling Harry towards the bed. Wesley let go of him long enough to lie down and pull the blanket up. Harry took the hint and slid down on top of Wesley and let the human pull the blanket over them.

Harry groaned and buried his head in the warmth of Wesley's chest and Wesley wrapped his arms around his torso, sighing at the sensation of their bodies touching. This was definitely not going to be the moment where Wesley fell asleep. Not for at least another few hours. Not until they'd released their pent up passion for one another.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**The next day**

"There's stuff out there." Harry said quietly from his place curled up in Wesley's lap where he spent most of his time as they either flew between areas or while they ran the scans. They'd run scans on eight different places and thanks to Harry's effect on the sensors they'd covered half of the area that Wesley thought that the _Voyager_ could be.

"What do you mean by stuff?" Wesley asked.

"Metal stuff." Harry grumbled.

"Ships?" Wesley tried and Harry nodded. "How many?"

Harry frowned. "Why's it matter how many there are? Why do you need to know how many there are?"

"I suppose if you can outfight them and out fly them it doesn't really matter." Wesley shrugged. "I'm just curious. Nobody has ever met any species from the Delta Quadrant before."

"So you want to say hello?" Harry asked. "They probably won't be nice."

"How do you know?" Wesley saw the narrowing of Harry's eyes.

"Because they shot me." Harry folded his arms across his bare chest. Wesley tightened his own arms and kissed Harry's shoulder getting a shiver out of him. Harry really came alive to Wesley's touch, he was so responsive.

"Let me put the sensors back the way they should be so we can scan outside the clo... outside of you." Wesley tapped away at the console and Harry focused on letting the energy out of himself and then back in. He was good at that now after three days of it. A screen appeared in front of them showing a little image of the shuttle in the middle in blue and then a circle about ten times the diameter. "It's not to scale." Wesley told him before Harry could get offended. "You're about a hundred times that size in scale to the shuttle."

"That's better." Harry nodded in agreement. "I'm quite compact at the moment though. Should I get bigger, that'll probably scare off those little ships."

'Those little ships' were eight small craft, about twice the size of the shuttle which had surrounded him. Five were remaining together while the other three were spread around him. As they watched the sensors reported a power build up and then warned them of an incoming energy missile. Harry grumbled and suddenly the five ships staying together disappeared from the scans along with the missile.

"Harry!" Wesley gasped in shock but then the five ships were back.

"What?" Harry asked.

"What happened?" Wesley pressed.

"I absorbed the incoming energy." Harry defended himself.

"Oh, sorry." Wesley winced. "I thought you'd destroyed them. You absorbing must have blocked the incoming sensor data."

Harry looked up at him with a grin. "Can I destroy them?" He asked.

"No." Wesley told him simply. "They're probably just curious. They probably don't realise that you're a sentient being."

"What a compliment." Harry muttered.

"You never used to be this sarcastic." Wesley pointed out.

"You're having an effect on me." Harry shrugged. "The longer I stay with you the more human I feel. Well at least this part of me feels human."

"That's right, you don't ask so may strange questions." Wesley nodded. "Maybe we should send them a message?"

"Why?" Harry asked turning his head so he could put his cheek against Wesley's bare shoulder. "They'll go away once they get bored."

An alarm bleeped on the console and the view above it zoomed out leaving them as only a small shape in the corner with the eight ships mere red dots around them. They were like a planet orbited by eight moons except they were still firing at him, their shots getting heavier and quicker. It was starting to irritate him. A new contact had appeared on the right of the little picture, a blue ship like they were. "What's that?"

"That Harry?" Wesley's grin was evident in his voice and Harry looked up at him. "Is the _Voyager_. Coming straight at us."

"Why?" Harry asked.

"She probably detected the weapons fire and is coming to investigate. Wait, she's slowing. Oh no." Wesley gasped.

"What?" Harry asked even as the screen shifted to cause Wesley's response. Why would that worry him? There were five new red ships above the Voyager, closing in on it.

"They're the same as the eight around us." Wesley told him. "They were heading to join their friends out there but then detected the _Voyager._ She probably would have been ignored except she sidetracked to find out what was happening here."

"But you said that they wouldn't be firing if they knew I was sentient." Harry pointed out. "Would they think _Voyager_ isn't?"

"No. They'll know she's got people on it." Wesley shook his head. "But that might not stop them from attacking her. By the looks of it _Voyager_ is well advanced compared to these thirteen ships."

"So she'll win?" Harry asked looking interested. "A fight might be fun to watch. Maybe we should go out of the cloud?"

"Harry!" Wesley shook his head. "We're not going to sit by and watch them attack the _Voyager_. Let's see what happens. They're chasing the _Voyager_ here anyway."

Harry shut his eyes and leaned back into Wesley and used the rest of him to see what was happening. "They don't look like nice ships, they're all green and sharp looking." Harry told Wesley. "That one looks like the boss." He said pointing though Wesley wouldn't have a clue what he was pointing at. Just then a ship suddenly appeared and Harry couldn't help but ebb around as if turning to look at it just as it slammed to a halt. "She's pretty."

"Harry! What's happening?" Wesley asked.

"They're just sitting there." Harry shrugged. "The pretty human ship had a blue shield on it though for a second. I can't see it now but I think I could drain it. The little ships have them too. Do you want me to drain them?"

"Not yet Harry." Wesley told him.

"Oh, there's more of the little green ships." Harry announced as they appeared behind the _Voyager_.

"Harry, if they start firing we're going to have to do something." Wesley told him. "Release the shuttle and I'll lower the shield. The _Voyager_ will detect us and beam us onboard but you might have to protect the shuttle until they do."

"What about the little green ships?" Harry asked.

"If they shoot at the _Voyager_ she'll shoot back then you can destroy them, just be careful of the _Voyager's _shield." Wesley told him.

"You mean I get to play?" Harry asked opening his eyes and looking at Wesley. "Thank you, Wes." He twisted and kissed Wesley roughly on the lips. When Harry pulled back Wesley was flushed and he scrambled for his own jacket and Harry's hoodie. "I'll be gone for a while okay but I'll leave my body with you." Wesley zipped up the jacket and kissed Harry before moving him over to the other seat.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Ten minutes earlier**

Captain Katherine Janeway tapped her fingers on the side of her chair as the _Voyager_ responded to Tom Paris' commands like a panther, slowing faster than any other Federation Starship when she'd been built. There were the five ships they'd had on sensors but they weren't firing on anything anymore. She stared for a moment at what they were sitting by. The only sign of anything was the fact that part of this solar system's sun was blanked out. It's light absorbed by a vast blackness. As they watched more ships appeared from behind the black mass.

"Three more alien ships coming around from behind..." Tovuk started. "I am unable to name the mass."

"Thirteen ships." Chakotay muttered.

"Increase power to the shield and try to raise the lead alien ship before our pursuers catch up to us." Janeway ordered. "Tuvok, run a full sensor sweep on that mass. Try to work out why they were attacking it."

"The mass seems to absorb all spectrums of energy." Tuvok said quickly. "I cannot say I have ever seen or heard of anything like this."

"Seven-of-nine to the bridge immediately." Janeway ordered.

"_I'm on my way, Captain."_ Seven responded quickly.

"Captain, the lead ship isn't responding to hails. They are charging weapons."

"Brace for impact." Janeway ordered. "Return fire, try to disable them if possible."

The ship shook as a phaser blast hit the shield. "Shields down to ninety-five percent." Harry Kim informed them. "Captain, the mass is moving." Kim had taken over reporting the mass and sensors when Tuvok moved to focus on tactical.

"Return fire." Janeway ordered so as not to get distracted. They had five enemy ships behind them, four ahead and the last four were moving above and below them. They were all firing and soon their shield was down to seventy percent but they had managed to cripple one of the ships which exploded seconds later. "Fire to destroy, Tuvok." She ordered reluctantly. So much for diplomacy.

"Captain!" Harry Kim gasped. "I've got a federation signal!"

"What?" She was half way to her feet and so was Chakotay.

"From where the mass was." Kim explained. "The mass was surrounding it, blocking it from our sensors but the mass is moving towards the enemy ships. It's a Federation shuttle craft for sure."

"Life signs?" She started to ask but Kim was faster.

"Two, one very weak." He told her.

"Captain, three of the ships are heading for that shuttle. It hasn't raised shields." Tom Paris declared.

"Beam out the crew." Janeway ordered before turning to Tuvok. "Concentrate all our fire on those three ships, protect that shuttle until we have those two onboard."

"Too late." Chakotay hissed just as two of the enemy ships fired at the shuttle but then something happened that they couldn't have guessed. The mass of darkness lashed out, ebbing and changing shape, the two phaser shots sunk into the darkness before it ebbed again and tendrils of whatever it was struck two of the three ships, passing through the shields and through the hull like they were paper. When it retracted the ships were drifting through space.

"Captain, when the mass hit those ships it almost completely drained them of power. The shields were completely depleted on contact." Tuvok informed her.

"Captain, we have the two crewmen from the shuttle." Harry Kim informed her. "The mass is moving away from it."

"Concentrate fire on our own ships." Janeway ordered and watched three shots slam into one of the alien ships, destroying it in a short lived explosion. That was five of them destroyed but their own shields were down to only forty percent.

"Captain, that mass..." Paris edged. "It's coming right at us pretty quickly."

"Evasive manoeuvres, Tom." Janeway accepted the information. "Whatever that mass is it's sentient." Before anyone else could speak the mass lashed out again but not as tendrils this time but like a wave. It hit three of the ships nearest to it but instead of cutting through them like before it enveloped them like a tidal wave. Three flashes of light just managed to pierce the darkness to show them that the ships had been destroyed.

"Captain." Seven's voice announced from behind her. She'd managed to come onto the bridge silently but now she was staring out of the window looking pale. "We should not remain here."

"Do you recognise this mass?" Janeway asked glancing back at the screen. The mass was more defined now that it was haloed by the sun's light and it's tendrils were obvious when it cut through another of the alien ships.

"It is an entity that the Borg have fought before. Fought and been beaten by. Once angered it is a deadly foe. We lost many of our strongest ships to it without damaging it." Seven announced. "The most that was discovered was that it enjoys absorbing any form of energy, seemingly for pleasure."

"Perhaps it was feeding on the shuttle?" Chakotay frowned.

"We can ask the crew once we're out of this situation." She announced. "Tuvok, focus on clearing us a path and Tom, once you see an exit take it, full warp speed."

"Gladly Captain." Tom announced with a grin. Seconds later their own torpedoes destroyed a pair of ships on their right and the _Voyager _spun around and shot into Warp speed as soon as it was clear.

"Captain, three of the alien ships escaped the battle with the mass, they are attempting to follow us." Tom announced.

"Keep us ahead of them but ease back on the warp core." Janeway ordered him. "Tuvok, you have the bridge. How about we go and talk to our guests?" She asked Seven and Chakotay.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

Harry's eyes flashed open making a small woman shriek in surprise and lurch away from him. She dropped one of the little pieces of computer. The one that talked to the bigger computers. Harry sat up and looked around finding Wesley sitting on a bed just like his one. A person was scanning him but Harry frowned. "You're weird." Harry announced making Wesley snort in amusement.

"He's a hologram, Harry." Wesley laughed before looking at the man in blue. "Sorry doctor."

"I prefer your mum." Harry announced before looking at the woman who was clutching the end of the bed. "Why did you scream, is there something wrong with me?"

"No!" She gasped. "Well I haven't actually started scanning you yet."

"Hmmm... you probably won't get much." Harry turned to Wesley with a pout. "They left me behind."

"Can you blame them?" Wesley asked. "What were the odds?"

"There were only five of them left." Harry frowned. "Three followed the _Voyager_ into that thing you think is fast. The other two killed the shuttle. I liked that shuttle. They're gone now though but it's weird being this stretched. I'll catch up though."

"Is this making sense to you, young man?" The doctor asked Wesley who laughed.

"Yes, Doctor." Wesley nodded. "Don't worry, Harry is just a bit weird."

"Why is he calling me crazy and you calling me weird?" Harry sulked moving up the bed and tucking his knees under his chin. Wesley laughed but then forced himself to stop.

"Harry..." He sighed and made to stand up only for the hologram to put a hand on his shoulder.

"You stay right...." The doctor was interrupted then when the doors opened and three people walked into the room, two women and a man.

"Doctor, these are our guests?" The man asked.

"How many guests did you take on?" Harry asked grumpily before looking at Wesley. "Isn't it obvious that we're the guests?"

"Harry, hush." Wesley shook his head before looking at the three, focusing on the shorter woman with the brown hair. "Sorry, ma'am. Thank you for rescuing us."

"They didn't rescue us." Harry grumbled.

"Harry...." Wesley grumbled and stood up.

"Young man, please stay seated." The doctor announced. Wesley sighed but did as he was told.

"Perhaps introductions are in order?" The shorter woman asked.

"Of course ma'am. My name is Wesley Crusher. I'm a research graduate at Starfleet Research Centre. Dark Energy research division." Wesley announced.

"Never heard of it." The man announced.

"You've been stuck out here though haven't you." Harry sniped.

"Harry, shut it." Wesley hissed. "Sorry, Sir. This is Harry. A... friend of the Federation."

"I'd imagine he was Federation, he is a human." The doctor put in.

"Well so is she." Harry nodded at the blonde woman with the small metal device over her eye. "But that doesn't mean she's part of the Federation. Borg though. Was that nice? I don't like the Borg."

"Harry!" Wesley pleaded.

"Why do I have to be quiet?" Harry whined back.

"Just for a few minutes?" Wesley bargained. "Please?"

"Fine." Harry grumbled and put his chin on his knees.

"I'm so sorry, ma'am. Harry's a little strange but his heart is in the right place." Wesley looked at Harry when Harry lifted his head to comment that he could put his heart in the wrong place and it wouldn't make a difference but Wesley's sharp look stopped him from doing anything more than opening his mouth.

"My name is Captain Katherine Janeway, this is my First Officer Chakotay and our Science Officer Seven-of-Nine." The shorter woman introduced. "I am intrigued with how you ended up out here if you are who you say you are. How did you get a Federation Shuttle all the way out here?"

"I imagine they were researching the mass we detected." Seven-of-Nine, the Borg, announced. "As he stated he is a graduate working towards the research of Dark Energy. The Borg were able to deduce that the mass was made up entirely of Dark Matter."

"Isn't that theoretical?" Chakotay asked.

"Until it attacked Earth and destroyed half of the Fleet four years ago." Wesley told them. "A year after your disappearance."

"How is it possible to be so far out?" Janeway asked.

"The cloud is..." Wesley glanced at Harry. "Sentient and friendly."

"You just said it tried to destroy the Earth." Chakotay accused.

"A cloud did. This one saved us." Wesley said. "It was helping me locate you."

"It!" Harry grumbled before snapping his mouth shut again.

"Fine, _he_." Wesley rolled his eyes. "Happy?"

Harry narrowed his eyes before shutting them for a moment. "Wesley, can I talk?"

"Go on, Harry." Wesley laughed.

"The cloud is about to overtake the enemy ships following us. What do you want me to do?" Harry asked.

"Uh..." Wesley frowned. "Captain, are we being followed?"

"Don't you trust me?" Harry complained but Wesley wasn't looking at him. Harry went back to sulking.

"Three ships broke off and gave chase, we are maintaining a margin ahead of them until they give up." Janeway nodded. "How do you know that? You shouldn't have access to our computers."

"This one has been asleep the entire time. Until about a minute before you came in." The hologram announced.

"Can't we use names?" Harry asked. "Wes...? The ships?"

"Don't you worry about those ships, lad." Chakotay told him. "They can't harm you here?"

"Do I look like a baby to you?" Harry accused. "I'm older than you are."

"Harry." Wesley groaned.

"You look like a teenager." Janeway frowned.

"Well I'm not." Harry grumbled before hopping up to his feet and stretching his arms.

"Now see here. I insist you at least sit back on the bed until we can check you are in good health." The hologram announced.

"Of course I'm in good health." Harry frowned before walking to Wesley's side. The hologram tried to touch him but when he did he simply faded from view. Harry looked up and down at where the hologram had been before shrugging and sitting beside Wesley, leaning into his side wishing they were alone so he could use his nice warm chest as a pillow.

"What just happened?" Janeway asked. "Computer activate EMH program."

The hologram flickered into existence and glared at Harry. Wesley looked across and down at Harry who shrugged. "Sorry, he took me by surprise. I absorbed his energy. Wasn't much though."

In a second the Borg reacted, pulling out a pistol from her leg and aiming it at Harry. Harry jumped automatically but the energy of the pistol wasn't going to hurt him. "Seven?" Janeway frowned.

"The Borg have been against this mass three times and on all occasions there were anomalous reports of a sighting of a young human boy who tried to befriend the crew." Seven announced. "I myself have witnessed the image replayed as a warning. It was viewed as a warning before imminent destruction."

"Hey!" Harry grumbled.

"Please, Captain." Wesley pleaded. "Harry won't hurt anyone."

"I might hurt _her_." Harry grumbled. "The ship's are about to be overrun. Just thought I'd warn you."

"Overrun by..." The Captain mumbled and then suddenly the ship shook violently throwing them across the room. Sparks flew and Harry and Wesley tumbled down onto the floor on the other side of the bed. Harry saw stars as his head hit the wall.

"Bridge report!" Janeway shouted just as the ship lurched again and went quiet. The lights faded to simple strips of red light. "Bridge?"

"_Captain."_ A voice responded as Wesley helped Harry up and held his arms. _"The three ships pursuing us exploded and the shockwave was accelerated by our combined wakes. Our warp engines have been damaged."_

"Are we in any further danger?" Janeway asked.

"_Not at the moment. The Warp core is offline but we have emergency power on all decks. No casualties have been reported so far."_ The voice assured her.

"I'll be up soon." She promised before turning to Harry and Wesley. "Perhaps you'd like to explain how you knew they were about to explode."

"Harry, you're bleeding." Wesley gasped running his fingers across Harry's forehead just as the lights built up to something nearer to normal and they all saw the cut that ran across Harry's forehead. Harry grumbled and shut his eyes and before them all the cut healed over. Wesley chuckled and rubbed at his forehead checking there wasn't anything else wrong with him.

"Explain, Ensign." Janeway suddenly snapped.

"I'm sorry, Ma'am." Wesley turned around. Harry stood slightly behind him afraid of their reactions. "I don't think Harry meant to do it."

"So you are saying that at this moment, somewhere out there, is the mass and that this Harry here is somehow connected to it?" Janeway asked.

"I _am_ it." Harry narrowed his eyes.

"He's a sentient being, ma'am." Wesley explained. "An intelligence within a being made out of Dark Matter. He can create a human body to communicate with us and part of him can inhabit that body. At the moment he's both in here with us and out there as a cloud of Dark Matter."

"That seems rather unbelievable." Janeway frowned.

"Did you happen to download the shuttle's databanks before it was destroyed?" Wesley asked hopefully.

"No, we didn't." Chakotay shook his head.

"Oh." Wesley winced. "Sorry we didn't really plan this that well. The opportunity arose and we took it."

"Opportunity?" Janeway asked. "As in you stole a Federation Shuttle and took it to the Delta Quadrant? How and why?"

"Why is probably easier." Wesley bit his lip. "Because I felt that if I had the means to help that I should and because Harry wanted to explore the galaxy with me. How is a little more tricky."

"No it's not." Harry grumbled. "I brought us here."

"Harry can move far faster than anything else the Federation has ever seen in the Galaxy." Wesley explained.

"_Captain to the Bridge."_A voice announced.

"On my way, Tuvok." She announced touching her badge. "You two are coming with me. We're not finished yet."

"Yes ma'am." Wesley muttered meekly. Harry jabbed him. "Harry be polite. She's one of the most revered Captains in the Federation."

"So?" Harry muttered as he and Wesley were escorted out of the hospital and into the corridor with Chakotay and Seven behind them.

"Just please do what I say and stop being difficult." Wesley begged.

"Fine!" Harry grumbled before grabbing Wesley's hand and clutching it between both of his. Wesley groaned but didn't complain and squeezed Harry's hand inside his own to show he really didn't mind.

It didn't take long for them to reach the bridge which was a lot smaller than the _Enterprise's_ bridge but Harry kept his mouth shut. Through the front window he could see himself shown using the light from the sun behind it. "It followed us out of warp." A man, a Vulcan, announced. Harry had met them before. They were boring, they never reacted to him.

"Supposedly it is an intelligent being." Janeway told him. "What do you know of a Cloud of Dark Matter?"

"The Vulcan Science Council once did a study on the information retrieved from another race who claimed to have seen a mass of unexplainable energy destroy its world. They determined it to be Dark Matter but also that it was probably based on false information." The Vulcan announced. Harry pouted and leaned into Wesley.

"What's it doing?" Janeway asked a man in yellow who stood to one side.

"It's not moving." The man told her. "It's approach suggested that it was the cause of the destruction of the pursuing ships."

"Told you..." Harry couldn't finish as Wesley put his hand over his mouth. Janeway glanced at them but didn't comment as Harry gave up struggling and instead leaned on Wesley's bigger shoulder again.

"Are you tired?" Wesley asked. Harry nodded as Wesley let go of his mouth.

"The _Voyager _left without me and I couldn't get that much of me into this body before the ship was too far away." Harry said though he knew that Janeway was listening.

"Can't you replenish now?" Wesley asked glancing up at Janeway's curious eyes.

"The _Voyager's_ shields are up. If I try to pass more of the energy across it'll drain the shields." Harry grumbled. "I'll be fine. There's enough Dark Matter inside the shields for me to siphon off of."

"You give me an interesting scenario." Janeway told them both.

"You can prove who I am from the database." Wesley pointed out. "And there are mentions of the Dark Matter cloud in the database too. The destruction of the El-Aurian homeworld."

"The Borg destroyed that planet." Seven spoke up.

"But the El-Aurians were aware of the Dark Matter cloud in their solar system leading up to the Borg attack and three of the Borg cubes fought and were destroyed by the Cloud." Wesley explained. "Harry?"

"What?" Harry asked.

"Why was the Cloud there?" Wesley asked.

"We were attracted by the El-Aurians' control of Dark Energy." Harry told Wesley. "It was interesting but the El-Aurians didn't provoke the Multitude so we were happy to simply study them. Find out what would happen if we destroyed them."

"What do you mean?" Wesley frowned. "Why would the Multitude care about killing them? It didn't care about the millions it killed on the way to Earth four years ago."

"We didn't know if they would join us rather than be killed." Harry shrugged. "The Multitude didn't like the idea of sharing their power with millions of others. We were still deciding when the cube ships arrived."

"Wait." Janeway frowned. "I'm confused a little. You keep calling this cloud the Multitude as if it's a separate entity to yourself but then you say we as if you are part of the Multitude."

"Is she asking me a question?" Harry asked Wesley. "She just said what I did so I'm not sure."

The humans in the room frowned except for Wesley who just nodded. "Why do you refer to them like that?" He clarified for Janeway.

"I was part of the Multitude." Harry shrugged. "But I never thought like them. I thought we shouldn't kill the El-Aurians at all and just leave them alone. Actually I liked the idea of approaching them in a body like this to talk to them, learn about them and maybe let some of them join us if they wanted. I met one on the _Enterprise_ in Ten-Forward. She was nice."

"Harry..." Wesley prompted when Harry followed his distraction.

Harry put his head down on Wesley's arm for a second before continuing. "That's all I ever wanted to do, meet the different races that stumbled across us but the Multitude liked feeling the swell of energy that they could absorb when they killed them. I was just me against millions of them and..."

"Millions?" Janeway frowned. "You mean there are that many like yourself out in space."

"If the Multitude had split up to be something like Harry is now they wouldn't have that much power individually. It was through their combined power that they were so powerful. Nothing the _Enterprise_ had could harm it, only anger it." Wesley took on the explanation. "It didn't really care about the ships and crews, it only cared about the larger explosions, causing supernovas and draining the cores of planets. That's what it wanted to do to Earth but it wanted to attract as many of the other races into the fight as well."

"Why?" Janeway asked. "If nothing could hurt it why be bothered?"

"For fun." Harry shrugged. "I'm immortal, I've drifted around space with the Multitude since the early twenty-first century of Earth and another four years on my own after I killed the rest of the Multitude. That's why I wanted friends, the Multitude were so full of anger and the desire to feel more powerful. Just like they were on Earth beforehand."

"Earth?" Chakotay took half a step forwards. "You make it sound like you came from Earth."

"There was a massive explosion in the early twenty-first century." Wesley told them.

"In France." A man spoke up from where he was sitting by the pilot's console listening in. "I saw a holo-image of the aftermath once."

"That was our creation. We pulled together all of the Dark Matter around Earth to destroy one of our enemies and when it exploded it wiped out southern France along with drawing every creature capable of harnessing Dark Energy into it as well. We became the Multitude." Harry shuddered and leaned closer to Wesley if that was possible.

"How about you explain what happened on Earth four years ago?" Janeway seemed a little more relaxed now.

Wesley launched into the explanation, everything from the discovery of the Multitude and the destruction of the _Gavon_ right through the upcoming chase and finally the battle over Earth where the Starfleet had created a weapon capable of draining the energy from the Multitude and how Harry had used that to his advantage to overcome the Multitude themselves and how he'd absorbed their power and vanished for four years. Then Wesley explained Harry's return to Earth and everything up to the _Voyager's_ appearance. Harry noted though, in his half distracted state that he didn't mention the night they'd had all that pleasure on the shuttle and he wondered whether Janeway would want to know but decided that Wesley would have told her if that was the case.

"Harry?" Wesley prompted Harry quietly, nudging him slightly. Wesley had to have been speaking for the last twenty minutes, telling the story and answering random questions but the crew didn't seem hostile anymore.

"Yeah?" Harry grumbled without lifting his head.

"Anything you want to add?" He pressed.

"Uh..." Harry straightened his head. "Sorry I broke the ship?"

Janeway laughed before she could stop herself and Harry frowned and looked at Wesley. "No, Harry. Breaking the ship isn't funny to her and no, you shouldn't do it again to make her happy."

That only seemed to make Chakotay and two of the other men on the bridge laugh and Harry frowned at them too. "It's just a little odd to hear you apologise for that, young man." Janeway said but cut herself off after calling him young. "Sorry, I suppose you're quite a bit older than any of us."

"I have a question." Chakotay sudden spoke up. "What happened after the Borg arrived over the El-Aurian homeworld?"

"The Borg destroyed all of their ships and then killed everyone on the surface." Harry said bluntly. "They didn't join us." He said sadly.

"We know how the Borg destroyed their world." Chakotay nodded. "What did you do?"

"We watched." Harry tilted his head as if that was obvious. "We were interested with how well the El-Aurians would be able to defend themselves. We'd seen the Borg destroy populations before. The Multitude sort of liked them. I didn't. They never even tried to talk to me."

"You watched to see how long it took the El-Aurians to be wiped out?" Chakotay had gone pale.

Harry frowned and stepped back slightly but Wesley caught him and held Harry against his chest, stopping him from running away. "Harry's not like that, Commander." Wesley defended. "Even my Captain agreed."

"Who was the Captain of the _Enterprise?_" Janeway asked. "I can't imagine many Captains being so open minded as to accept Harry."

"Captain Jean-Luc Picard." Wesley said with a proud tone to his voice.

"I met him a few times." Janeway nodded. "He's an excellent Captain."

"Is she trying to change the subject?" Harry asked Wesley.

"Harry!" Wesley groaned in despair as Harry completely tore apart Janeway's plan.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

End Chapter


	6. Returning

Darkness in the Void

A/N; This story definitely isn't finished because there's still plot to go in regards to Wesley and Harry and although I know this story is a little odd I've really enjoyed writing it and I hope it's enjoyable to read as well. It's actually rather hard to write Harry like this, I'm so used to a dark and broody Harry in my stories. What fun would writing be though if it wasn't a challenge. Enjoy.

Chapter 6; Returning

**Voyager – The next morning**

Harry woke and hummed as he sat up. He wasn't like a human that came awake slowly and got confused in new places. He knew he was on the shiny human ship that Wesley had wanted to find. He knew that after they'd finished talking he and Wesley had been led to a cabin and Harry, being tired since he didn't have much reserves left, fell asleep curled up with Wesley. Thinking about Wesley made him look down at where Wesley's arm crossed his lap. Wesley had been using his shoulder as a pillow and Harry rubbed at his shoulder where it was suddenly feeling rather cold without Wesley keeping it warm. He made more energy burn and it heated up a little but it still didn't feel as good as having Wesley there.

Wesley was awake too but he stayed lying half on his front. "Wes." Harry frowned. "Why aren't you waking up? I didn't take your energy did I?"

"No." Wesley grumbled before pushing himself up enough to drag Harry back to a lying position. Harry complied and soon Wesley was warming his shoulder again and it felt right. "Why's your shoulder so warm?"

"I heated it." Harry frowned even as Wesley looked up in confusion. "It felt cold when I sat up but it still didn't feel right when I warmed it up. It feels better now."

Wesley laughed and settled his head down after kissing Harry's shoulder gently. "We need to work on your morning habits."

"I don't understand." Harry told Wesley when the human didn't continue.

"Lying in bed and being lazy." Wesley informed him. "I like lying like this and waking up with you so you should stay in bed and stay still when you wake up."

"But..." Harry frowned before thinking about it. Staying lying down when he woke meant he could still be curled up with Wesley for longer and that felt nice. "Okay." He told him cheerfully.

Wesley laughed and Harry turned to look at him. "Nothing, Harry." Wesley told him without looking up. "It's just a lot easier now for you to work something out."

"I don't understand." Harry frowned before shrugging and turned to snuggle into Wesley's front. "If you're like that and so am I can we have sex?" He asked, being purposely blunt, wanting to see Wesley blush and it worked perfectly. That didn't stop Wesley from agreeing though.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Later**

Wesley had been told that he could move freely around the ship since his identity had checked out with the ship's database and Harry was free to do the same as long as Wesley kept an eye on him. Harry had sulked about being chaperoned but since it was Wesley he really didn't mind. The first stop was at a replicator because Harry said he was hungry and they both had a bowl of Wesley's favourite breakfast before Harry had a second and it was with the second bowl in his hands that he and Wesley walked onto the Bridge.

"What are you eating there, Harry?" Janeway asked as soon as she spotted them. Harry looked around and took in the same people as the day before.

"Food." Harry frowned. "Is that wrong?"

"No." She chuckled. "I was just curious."

"It's breakfast." Harry declared. "Banana and waffles and nice syrup and sugar and..."

Wesley covered his mouth. "It's his second helping, ma'am." He explained. "And it seems his body doesn't remember sugar or adapt to it each time he creates it."

"So he's got a sugar high?" Chakotay asked in amusement.

"Sugar high from hell." Wesley agreed.

"But..." Harry mumbled against Wesley's hand and he was allowed to speak. "I could make it so my body doesn't use the sugar. There isn't all that much energy to absorb in comparison but I like feeling sugar highs. It's..." He trailed off trying to find a way to explain it. "Fun."

Several people snorted and Wesley led him further into the room. "How is the ship, ma'am?"

"Repairs are almost complete but it'll be a few hours before we're ready to jump to warp. sublight might take a little longer." She told him with a smile.

"I'm really sorry about that." Wesley told him. "Harry doesn't quite grasp the world as we do. How things might be affected doesn't really come into his thinking."

"But I warned you!" Harry complained in his defence as he looked rather forlornly at his empty bowl. "People didn't listen."

"I know, Harry. I know." Wesley soothed him before taking away his bowl before Harry could think of licking the dredges out. "You can have more later." Harry grinned happily and jumped into the seat in the middle of the bridge. Everybody stared at him and Wesley made a get up motion.

"What?" Harry asked. "Am I doing something wrong?"

Wesley rubbed at his head with a groan. "Only the Captain sits in that chair or someone who is acting in their place."

"It's alright." Janeway announced. "He can stay there. It'll stop him from breaking something anyway."

"I could..." Harry started.

"No, Harry." Wesley interrupted him. "I get that you could break something easily from there but don't."

"You're no fun sometimes, Wes." Harry sighed before tucking his legs up under him and glancing around. Wesley sat in a spare chair on his right and Harry smiled at him gently. Wesley returned it to show he wasn't annoyed. "Wes?"

"Yes, Harry?" Wes nodded.

"Would it be bad if more of those funny ships arrived?" He asked.

"Funny ships?" Janeway asked with a frown.

"The sharp little green ones that killed the shuttle." Harry turned to Wesley. "I liked that shuttle, it was cute."

"Cute?" The man, Tom, at the front asked but was generally ignored.

"Yes, it would be bad." Wesley nodded.

"Oh." Harry frowned. "There's five of them out there."

"What?" Wesley jumped to his feet.

"Tuvok." Janeway demanded turning to the grumpy Vulcan behind them all.

"There is nothing on sensors." He reported.

"Well you can't see behind me can you." Harry grumbled. "You don't believe me?" He asked Janeway.

"I do." Janeway nodded after a moment. "The cloud must be absorbing out sensors too much in that direction."

"You want me to stop?" Harry asked Wesley who nodded to him. In the window in front of them the cloud suddenly vanished and the sun glared at them brightly.

"Five ships. Same type as before, Captain." Tuvok reported.

"They must have detected us and entered sublight behind the cloud where we couldn't see them." Chakotay pointed out.

"Isn't that obvious?" Harry asked Wesley.

"Some things have to be said out loud by somebody." Wesley told him.

"We don't have weapons, sublight or warp." Janeway announced. "And the shields won't last long enough to repair the damage. What options do with have?"

"Can't we just ask them to leave us alone?" Harry asked.

"We could." Janeway nodded. "But experience shows that after you destroy thirteen of their ships they won't just leave you alone."

"I could kill them." Harry looked to Wesley. Wesley was the one always telling him not to.

"I think we should at least try diplomacy first, Captain. Say that we control the cloud or something." Wesley suggested.

"Hey!" Harry complained.

"It might give them pause for thought." Chakotay muttered.

"Open a channel." Janeway declared. "Unidentified vessels, this is Captain Janeway of the Starship Voyager. We are peaceful explorers and although shots were fired between us and vessels like yours we did not instigate hostilities. We only wish to be left alone to carry out repairs and continue on our journey."

"Lead ship charging weapons." Tuvok announced.

"Red alert!" Janeway announced. "All hands brace for impact!"

The red lights flickered on and Harry turned to Wesley with a grin on his face. "Don't play with the alert, Harry." Wesley warned.

"I wasn't going to!" Harry whined in return although the thought had crossed his mind.

"The lead ship is firing a torpedo." Tuvok announced. Harry watched the screen as a bright ball of red light shot from the closest ship and straight at them. Harry frowned before grinning happily. The space in front of them blurred and the torpedo vanished before exploding half way between them and the green ships. Light just managed to escape the sudden darkness before it faded along with any distortion in space.

"Harry?" Wesley prompted.

"I'm still there." Harry shrugged. "He shot through me. Fairs fair. Plus it felt good."

Wesley laughed and reached over and touched Harry's arm. "Just keep doing that."

"Okay!" Harry grinned happily just as the enemy ships spread out and began firing at the Voyager. Every shot vanished into ebbing cloud but soon Harry had to focus too much to turn himself from the version that absorbed nothing to absorbing everything and simply let himself absorb everything that came into contact with him. The ships vanished from view and Harry pulled himself around the Voyager to surround it in a large sphere of Dark Energy. To the ships outside he'd just swallowed the Voyager.

"Harry?" Wesley prompted.

"You're protected." Harry shrugged. "They can't reach you anymore."

"What options do we have?" The Captain asked. "How long would repairs take?"

"Latest estimate is three hours." Harry Kim told her from the side.

"Can you protect us for that long?" Janeway asked.

"Do I have to?" Harry whined. Wesley sighed and poked him. "Come on Wes, it's boring doing this! Can't I just kill them?"

"It's not our way." Janeway told him. "If we can find a peaceful solution we are sworn to take it."

"I'm not." Harry grumbled.

"Harry." Wesley turned and knelt between his legs. "We can't just kill them like this. They can't hurt us."

"They're shooting at me!" Harry complained.

"And they're making you stronger." Wesley laughed. "They're not hurting you."

"It's still mean." Harry frowned.

"If they find a way to hurt you then you can destroy them in order to protect yourself." Janeway assured him. "For the time being just keep doing what you're doing."

"It's boring." He grumbled before standing up. He dragged Wesley into the seat he'd been in and then slumped down onto his lap. People stared and Wesley went bright red but Harry just tucked his head into his shoulder.

"Something I should know?" Janeway asked in amusement.

Harry turned and frowned at her. "Why would you need to know?"

Wesley groaned even as Janeway smirked. "How long can you conceivably hold off the ships?" She asked instead.

"I don't understand." Harry looked at Wesley.

"Indefinitely, Ma'am." Wesley told her. "It doesn't take up any of his energy to intercept the energy in the attacks. It kind of gives him what amounts to a sugar high though."

"Sugar?" Harry grinned thinking of the breakfast he wanted. "Can I..."

"Not now, Harry." Wesley interrupted knowing what he was going to ask for. "The rest of the Multitude used to tip stars over into supernovas just for the thrill. The explosions literally swallowed the Multitude but did them no harm."

"How did you defeat it then?" Chakotay frowned.

"We didn't really." Wesley shook his head. "As we have come to understand each entity within the Multitude existed as a small reservoir of Dark Matter. That's essentially what the Multitude was. A collection of millions of entities made up of small amounts of Dark Matter. Very small on their own but combined into something more powerful than anyone has ever witnessed."

"So the very thing they're made up of absorbs every type of energy?" Harry Kim asked.

"Exactly." Wesley nodded. "To actually kill them you'd have to negate the core Dark Matter."

"And nothing can do that." Harry Kim nodded.

"What gave them their power though was the Dark Matter's ability to draw to it Dark Energy." Wesley continued even as Harry listened. "Harry's soul I suppose you could say is Dark Matter but his power is the Dark Energy that it radiates and that he collects from around him. When he splits himself like he has now he puts a small amount of that Dark Matter into this body and leaves the rest outside. That Dark Energy isn't really a part of him but rather bends to his will. He can use it instead of himself to destroy things."

"So how exactly do you fight something like that?" Janeway asked.

"Strip it of its energy." Wesley sighed. "We found that by using inverted frequency we could isolate the Dark Matter that was the 'souls' from the Dark Energy that it used to fight with. We knew it was working when the Multitude began using warp core overloads to try to regain strength during the battle."

"That would merely weaken them though. Frequency weapons only affect energy waves, not matter." Tuvok pointed out.

"Exactly why I said we couldn't defeat them. You can't destroy Dark Matter with Matter as we know it." Wesley nodded.

"Harry?" Janeway guessed and Harry lifted his head, thinking that she was talking to him but Wesley spoke first.

"Yeah." Wesley nodded. "He stole the plans for the weapon and altered himself to become immune to that particular frequency and then rejoined the Multitude when it attacked the Home Fleet in Earth orbit. We weakened the Multitude and he turned on them using his Dark Matter and Energy to destroy theirs. He's never really explained but as we figure it he absorbed the Dark Matter that they had in their reservoirs and added it to his own. Thus he gained power as the attack went on until he destroyed the rest of the Multitude."

"So unless there's another being consisting of Dark Matter out there we don't know about he's pretty much invincible." Janeway guessed.

"You said the El-Aurians could control Dark Energy." Chakotay started. "Does that mean they could hurt you?"

"Harry?" Wesley asked when Harry didn't answer right away.

"I don't know how to compare it." Harry turned to Wesley to show he was actually paying attention. "As much as you hurt your feet by standing on them." Harry frowned before nodding to show he agreed with what he just said.

"Basically they could affect you but insignificantly." Wesley summed up.

Harry nodded before frowning and looking at the window. Even as he looked the darkly ebbing cloud that covered the entire screen vanished as he made it not absorb anything. "Sensors detect no vessels in the near vicinity." Tuvok announced.

"They ran away." Harry pouted up at Wesley. "That way." He pointed out the side of the bridge.

"Confirmed." Tuvok announced. "All ships are outbound at Warp velocity. There scanners have detected our reappearance yet they don't seem to be returning."

"They must realise it's pointless." Chakotay grinned down at Harry.

"So I did good?" Harry asked Janeway before looking around at Wesley who nodded. Harry grinned and kissed him making many of the humans on the bridge cough in surprise. When he pulled back Wesley was bright red and stammering. "What?"

"Not good." Wesley groaned.

"We'll pretend we didn't see that, Lieutenant." Janeway summed up before turning back to the window. "Let's continue with repairs. We'll have a meeting once we're ready to get back underway."

"Do you want more energy?" Wesley asked just loud enough for Janeway to hear and look around at them. Harry nodded and made a small motion between his fingers. "Ma'am, could you lower the shields so that Harry can transfer some Dark Energy through them. He didn't get a chance to get a lot through when we jumped to Warp."

"If you're reserving a little of yourself to outside the ship in order to be able to protect us I'd rather bring them down entirely until we finish repairs to the Warp Core." Janeway told them.

"Harry? Can you keep an eye out and protect the ship?" Wesley checked. Harry nodded.

"Lower the shield." Janeway ordered.

"Watch this." Wesley announced with a grin. "Computer, how many life signs on the Bridge."

"There are currently twelve personnel on the Bridge, ten crewmembers and two guests." The Computer responded.

"Why?" Chakotay asked but Wesley just told him to wait a moment. Harry shivered and then leaned back into Wesley and nodded.

"Computer, how many life signs on the Bridge?" Wesley asked again.

"There are currently eleven personnel on the Bridge, ten crewmembers and one guest." It responded in exactly the same way.

"I confused it?" Harry grinned.

"Lieutenant?" Janeway asked.

"The Dark Energy that Harry keeps with him absorbs the internal scans." Wesley explained. "The last day he's not had enough around his physical body to stop the internal scanners from detecting him. Now he's stronger and his body has vanished as far as the ship is concerned. He enjoys confusing it but giving orders even though the ship can't detect him."

"Easily pleased." Chakotay laughed and Harry pouted at him.

"No Harry, don't call for a red alert." Wesley groaned and Harry turned to him and slumped against his to sulk even as the others all laughed.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Three hours later**

Harry was sitting with Wesley in the room they'd been given getting rather bored when he felt it. He grinned at Wesley who sighed and put the datasheet down on the edge of the sofa they'd been lounging on while Wesley had been reading up on the _Voyager's_ specifications. "What is it, Harry?" Wesley asked.

"The _Voyager_ just powered up her warp core." Harry grinned. "I can feel it."

"Don't do anything to it." Wesley warned.

"I'm not stupid." Harry grumbled.

"You played with the _Enterprise's_ warp core just to get our attention." Wesley pointed out.

"I was just having a little fun." Harry groaned. "And you were all being mean to me."

"You..." Wesley started but the little communications badge on his shirt bleeped at him.

"Lieutenant Crusher report to the briefing room." A voice told him.

"Demanding little thing isn't it?" Harry asked getting a chuckle from Wesley who knew better then to think Harry believed it was the little metal contraption that was actually telling them what to do.

"We'd better go." Wesley sighed. "We shouldn't keep them waiting."

"So we should get there quickly?" Harry asked.

"Obviously." Wesley nodded and stood up even as he patted the device. "This is Crusher, I'm on my way."

"Can we go my way then?" Harry asked.

"Your way?" Wesley turned back to him with a frown. "What way?"

"The same way we've been moving about all this time." Harry frowned as if Wesley was daft. He made a quick moving motion with his hand. "With the shuttle?"

"That was warp drive." Wesley frowned. "Wait! You mean you can move like the Multitude did through space while you're in a human body."

"I could do it when I _was_ human." Harry pointed out. "I think. It was a long time ago."

"So you can take us from here to the briefing room just next to the Bridge at warp speed." Wesley checked. "What about the walls and stuff?"

"What about them?" Harry asked. "How do they get a say?"

"They're kind of between us and the briefing room." Wesley pointed out.

"Okay, so I'll do it a little differently." Harry sighed as if Wesley was just causing problems for the sake of it. He walked forwards and grabbed Wesley's hand in his own. Wesley tensed up. Harry looked around at him. "You don't trust me?"

Wesley groaned knowing that he was being baited. He nodded all the same and with a pop of displaced air the two vanished from sight, leaving the normal dimensions of space and travelling so fast they were almost in two places at one.

In the briefing room the air between the table and the large window vanished into a dark ebbing mass that seemed to shrink even as people noticed it only for Harry to appear holding a rather shaky Wesley's hand. "Okay, that was weird." Wesley announced. "Don't ever do that without warning me."

"What's wrong with it?" Harry frowned. "Did it feel bad?"

"Very bad." Wesley summed up.

"Want to explain, Lieutenant?" Janeway asked and Wesley jumped and took in the eight people sitting around the table.

"The little metal thing wanted us to come here so we came here." Harry told her as if she was daft. Wesley tugged him closer and put a hand over his mouth.

"Sorry, Ma'am." Wesley groaned.

"I think we're beyond the need for you to apologise for him, Lieutenant." Janeway laughed. "What just happened?"

"I think he used his Dark Energy to remove us from this dimension of space so that we could pass through the walls and then moved us at Warp speed up to here." Wesley sighed. "He said he could have done it when he was still human too. It felt like my whole body was being squeezed through a very small hole."

"Advantages of not really having a real body." Harry grinned up at him. "Used to feel like that too but it's handy."

"It's basically what he does to move at warp speed out in space, ma'am." Wesley explained. "Just obviously at these sort of distances it's like moving instantaneously." Wesley shuddered at the thought of doing it again.

"Shall we get down to business then?" Janeway motioned to two empty seats at her side. Wesley pushed Harry down into the one closest to Janeway and then sat next to him. Harry folded his legs underneath him and started fidgeting as he was made to act serious. "The repairs are all complete?" Janeway asked.

"Yes, Captain." The woman called Belana nodded. "We're just running the standard function checks but we can get underway whenever you like."

"Good." Janeway nodded. "The question is what to do."

"Isn't that obvious?" Harry asked Wesley. "Leave here so the little green ugly ships don't find us?"

"Yes, Harry." Wesley sighed before shrugging at the Captain. "Perhaps we should put our own cards on the table before we start this conversation."

"Go ahead, Lieutenant." Janeway nodded.

"We came here in a little under twenty-four hours from Earth Orbit to the inside edge of the Delta Quadrant. We found you, or rather you found us, a little less than four extra hours of travel from there." Wesley summed up. "Harry can travel at exceedingly fast speeds whether he's alone or if he carries something with him. I'm not sure how size affects numbers and I'd challenge anyone to try to get a straight answer out of him but basically put we can get you back to Earth in a short time span."

"You make me sound like a transport." Harry grumbled. Wesley shot him a smile and he huffed and pretended to sulk, yet nobody was fooled.

"So really the question comes down to what you want to do." Wesley asked. "You've been out here for five years. Do you want to finish your journey with us to help speed things along a little or do you want to go home?"

"And what is it that the two of you want?" Janeway asked.

"If we take you home we'll have to answer to the Fleet for our disappearance." Wesley shrugged. "Okay I will, Harry scares them too much."

"Too right!" Harry grinned.

"I can blame Harry for most of anything though." Wesley shrugged. "He's kind of impulsive so I shouldn't get into too much trouble. And if I bring you back with us it'll go a long way into getting forgiven even with the fact I technically stole a shuttle and got it destroyed."

"Wes..." Harry whined. "I thought we were going to explore!"

"We will." Wesley nodded.

Janeway hummed for a moment before looking around at her officers who all seemed to tell her the same thing with just their eyes. "I think I could probably put in a word or two about finding you a ship, a captain and a crew suited for exploring this region of space properly, Lieutenant Crusher." She nodded. "There are many opportunities out here but the Fleet will need your young friend's help if they are to take advantage of it. Hell, after a little break I might even offer to fly out here again. But I think myself and my crew are due a visit home and the choice of whether to be out here or not."

"Aww, leaving so soon?" A voice sounded from behind them all by the window. Harry frowned and leapt out of his seat and stared at the man leaning against the window.

"I don't like you." Harry announced.

"I don't much like you either." The man announced. "And when we really get down to it I'm the prettier one. Have you seen what you look like out there?"

"Q!" Janeway called as she stood up. Wesley rose and tugged on Harry gently. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh! Thought I'd pay a visit." The man, Q, grinned. "It's been so long after all. And you know how I like to keep an eye on you. Especially if you're out playing with things like this."

"That was mean." Harry mumbled. "This is _my_ ship. Get out of it."

"Not your ship." Q laughed and raised his hand and clicked his fingers. Harry yelled as he felt power flung at him from all around. He was torn away from the _Voyager _and right out of the human body he'd created. He just about heard Wesley scream his name and knew his body had simply collapsed lifeless as he recombined outside of the ship as one entity.

He roiled angrily and shrunk down to a mere pinhead of immense power and blurred through the ship, not effecting anything physically as he slammed through where the man with the power still stood facing his new friends. His power tore through the man's power and dragged him out into space even as the power drained temporarily from the _Voyager_.

Power exploded in space as the entity that was Q turned on Harry. Harry felt a drain as the power hit him but rolled around it in space and attacked back.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Shortly before**

Wesley stared in shock as Harry's body crumpled to the ground. He just about managed to reach out and ease its descent. It was ice cold, just like it was when it didn't have any of Harry in it. He found himself on his knees and turned to stare up at the smirking man that he recognised as Q. "What did you do?"

"Sent him away." Q shrugged. "Can't have him playing with what's mine now can I?"

"I think who we talk to is our business." Janeway snapped and Wesley felt relief that she was taking his side in this argument. Q had to be very powerful in order to force Harry to do anything. The man was about to open his mouth to retort when he turned to the side in shock just as a lance of darkness streaked across the room and tore through his body. It seemed to shatter before being dragged out through the wall along with the dark streak.

"Captain to the Bridge." Someone he didn't know requested from the bridge even as the lights flickered on an off for a while. Wesley lowered Harry's body to the floor by the window and rushed out after the others and into the Bridge. "Captain." The same person greeted from where they stood in the middle of the bridge. "The cloud just vanished on us for a second. Now it's back between us and the sun and it's..."

"It's what Lieutenant?" Janeway asked just as they all took over their stations and Janeway, Chakotay and Wesley came to a stop in the middle of the room. Wesley gasped as he saw the writhing cloud between them and the sun. It looked almost like when Harry took on the Multitude. It writhed around on itself and occasionally there was a flash that seemed to weaken parts of it.

"He's fighting Q." Wesley gasped before turning to her. "What is he? We met him before on the _Enterprise_. He's the one that set the Borg onto us in the first place but we didn't find out much about him."

"A being from the Continuum." Janeway told him. "They're beings of energy. Now that I think about it I'm not sure what type of energy."

"Whatever it is, it's hurting Harry." Wesley frowned.

"How can you tell?" Chakotay asked.

"You can see parts of him getting weaker." Wesley chewed his fingertips.

"Are the flashes him or Q?" Chakotay asked.

"I've never seen anything like them." Wesley shook his head. "Harry would absorb the energy if it was anything else but that man."

"The flashes can be detected by our sensors." Harry Kim announced. "They are about a hundred times more powerful than a photon torpedo and are half way between us and the sun."

Wesley was shocked. Harry had spread out into a massive form if they were really that far away. Wesley had thought they were closer than that. "Are they getting any weaker?" Janeway asked.

"Slightly weaker each time." Harry Kim reported.

"Keep our distance." Janeway ordered rather unnecessarily. "Can anyone think of a way we can intervene?"

"Intervene on whose side?" Chakotay asked.

"I'm more inclined to help Harry out right now." Janeway went to explain when something happened they couldn't quite describe. The cloud that was Harry streaked away from them and not two seconds later they saw him spreading out over the sun.

"Captain, he's encasing this system's sun!" Harry Kim announced. "I think Q's still attacking him though."

"Captain, he's going to Supernova it!" Wesley gasped.

"Tom! Get us clear!" Janeway called.

"We're clear." Wesley told her. "He'll absorb almost all of it."

"Be on the safe side, Tom. Be ready to jump us to warp to get us clear." Janeway ordered cautiously with a glance at Wesley and then back at the sun that was quickly vanishing behind a thin layer of darkness.

"Fingers poised and ready." Tom reported from the pilot's console.

"Supernova imminent." Harry Kim declared seconds before the sun flashed and seemed to shrink in on itself before it exploded outwards and slammed through the cloud which lay seemingly unaffected. The sun seemed to ebb but stopped expanding as it exploded and they quickly realised something was absorbing all of the energy of the attack. Something bright careened away from the sun suddenly even as it faded into darkness.

"Captain, I can detect a powerful energy between us and the sun's last position but I can only detect the cloud as a void in space. It is considerably larger than it was before." Harry Kim announced.

"Does he get Dark Energy from explosions?" Janeway asked Wesley.

"Explosions like that release as much Dark Energy as it does normal energy. He gets energised by the absorbing of the normal energy but the Dark Energy is added to his stores." Wesley explained. They'd studied it extensively over the years since the Multitude had attacked Earth.

"Magnify." Janeway ordered and the screen shifted to show a pulsating bright white light surrounded by darkness. They couldn't see anything of the stars behind the white light and that was the only way of being able to see Harry out there. As they watched the light faded a little as the cloud surrounded it. It flashed and the cloud writhed but continued to surround it and Wesley realised just how much larger Harry was.

"He's never done that since he became solitary." Wesley frowned. "When they were the Multitude they destroyed eighteen suns but they shared the power equally between them so they didn't expand so much. When Harry absorbed their Dark Matter he grew in power as a being but he hasn't really absorbed energy like this before. I think they were more limited than Harry is now."

"So there's really no telling how much energy he just absorbed?" Janeway asked.

"Except that he really doesn't seem to be struggling anymore." Chakotay commented.

"Or how much of those explosions he absorbs." Wesley shook his head.

"Captain!" Harry Kim gasped. "There's a singularity forming in the middle of that! I can barely make it out but gravity is starting to spread out. It's almost like there's a tear in space."

"Too much energy?" Janeway guessed.

"I would imagine it is formed from a clash between Dark and normal matter." Seven of Nine finally spoke up. "I would suggest that we leave this area of space."

"Agreed." Janeway nodded before looking at Wesley. "I'm sorry but there really isn't anything we can do except get caught up in this. Will he be able to find us?"

"Unless we go too far." Wesley sighed.

"We won't." Janeway ordered just as the gravity began to affect them. The ship shuddered. "Tom, get us clear. Warp speed."

"Coming about." Tom announced and the ship turned even though the screen remained directed on what now was starting to look like a black hole. The light ebbed in the middle rather than a black singularity but the cloud spun around it like a storm. The ship lurched and shuddered. "Captain, I can't break free. Gravity is increasing too fast."

"Keep our distance." Janeway ordered, concern showing on her features. The ship shuddered again.

"Sublight engines at full power." Tom informed them. "We're not making any headway and the gravity is slowly increasing. It's going to start pulling us in as well."

"Is there anything we can do to negate the gravity?" Janeway asked.

"I don't know whether it's Harry or this Q person doing it." Wesley shook his head. "And even whether they realise they're doing it."

"Seven!" Harry Kim ordered and the woman quickly crossed up to the back consoles from where she's been waiting patiently. She looked at his console with a frown. Clearly he wasn't sure what he was seeing.

"Captain. I believe the singularity is reversing polarity. Forming a theoretical White Hole." Seven announced.

"Can we use that?" Janeway asked. "If the gravity reverses."

"We'd be torn apart in the ebb current before it reverses enough to push us away." Seven reported.

"Shields." Janeway ordered even though she knew they had little effect against gravity.

"Singularity reversing." Seven reported.

"Come on, Harry." Wesley muttered and just then everything exploded outwards. It looked as though the entire world had gone white. The dampener blocked out the bright light from burning at them and the ship shuddered but then he felt a distinct lurch and fell backwards into one of the seats behind them even as everyone else was sent flying about.

When the world steadied again Weasley spotted unbroken stars through the screen. "Report." Janeway ordered as she let Chakotay assist her off of the deck.

"We're a hundred light years from our previous position." Tom reported.

"Captain. We've got the cloud on sensors." Harry frowned. "Or at least we've got a void on sensors."

The screen snapped to show a part of space where stars kept flickering on and off as something shifted. "What's it doing?" Janeway asked.

"Just seems to be waiting." Harry reported.

"Harry grabbed us and took us away from the explosion." Wesley guessed.

"Any sign of Q?" Janeway asked.

"There's a massive explosion still in existence in our previous position." Harry reported.

"Did Harry win?" Wesley asked.

"Who can tell?" Chakotay shrugged. "We barely understand what just happened."

"I think two immensely powerful beings just fought over territory." Janeway frowned.

"Harry doesn't want to own anything, Captain." Wesley assured her. "He just likes getting to know us. He's protective over the people that talk to him. He doesn't have a secondary agenda."

"Unlike Q." Janeway nodded. "Harry's a less complicated being when it comes to his thoughts."

"He doesn't see the reason behind trickery. He says what he thinks because he doesn't really understand the need to excuse himself anymore." Wesley shrugged.

"Captain, it's moving towards us." Harry Kim reported. "Spreading out to surround us."

"Stay in position." Janeway ordered everyone in general. They watched as slowly all of the stars were blotted out in front of them.

"Captain, it surrounded us but hasn't closed with the hull." Harry Kim reported.

"The shield's still up." Wesley frowned. "He won't touch it when he's in this form or he'd drain it in a split second."

"He could just change so that he doesn't absorb anything." Janeway pointed out. "Like when he's invisible. He can pass through if he wants."

"Yes." Wesley nodded. "But this is him asking permission to come towards the hull."

"Lieutenant?" Chakotay asked.

"I understand." Janeway cut off any further explanation of Harry's behavioural habits. "I think. Lower the shield."

The Cloud ebbed and continued in towards them as soon as the shield shut down. "Captain, I've lost hull sensors." Harry Kim reported with concern in his voice.

"Anything further inside?" Wesley asked before the Captain could ask.

"All internal sensors are active." Harry Kim shook his head. "It's like the hull isn't there."

"He's soaked himself into the outside layer of the hull." Wesley turned to the Captain. "Next you'll register a fluctuation in the Warp Core."

"You might have to explain that, Lieutenant." Janeway asked but was interrupted when B'Elanna called from the back of the Bridge.

"Captain, the Warp Core just jumped output by twenty-five percent!" She warned. "We're stabilising it but it keeps fluctuating."

"Lieutenant?" Janeway frowned. "What's he doing to my ship?"

"Pick a destination." Wesley grinned.

"What?" Chakotay asked.

"He's asking you to pick a destination." Wesley told him. "As soon as you activate the warp engines he'll feed his own energy into them and piggy back on the ship even as he increases the ship's speed. After the amount of energy he gained from that supernova I have no idea what speeds he's capable of."

"Captain? What do you think?" Chakotay prompted when the Captain just frowned.

"Ship wide." She ordered and there was a beep. "This is the Captain speaking. We've been given an opportunity from our Dark Matter friend to take a shortcut back to Earth. If there is anyone on this ship that wishes to give a reason for not taking him up on his offer then call the Bridge now."

She paused as she waited but everyone on the Bridge was staring at her, waiting to hear her next words. Eagerly waiting for her to order a course back home. She left the internal broadcast on as she spoke her next words. "Lieutenant Paris, plot us a course back to Earth. Maximum Warp speed."

Wesley slipped down into the seat. "This'll be interesting." Janeway and Chakotay turned to him but sat down too.

"Engage." Janeway ordered.

The ship lurched a little but with nothing out of the window they had no idea what was happening. "Captain?" B'Elanna sounded uncertain as she looked out of the front windows. "We've got something strange happening back here."

"Explain." Janeway requested.

"The warp drive isn't straining but it's definitely running above normal." She informed them all.

"And we've definitely got a warp field around us." Tom reported.

"But sensors can't pick up any sign of movement around us." Harry Kim reported.

"It takes a little getting used to." Wesley told them all. "The ship knows it's moving but can't tell how fast or where. Harry will guide us around any obstacles or ships."

"Why hasn't he come back inside the ship?" Janeway asked. "Into his body again?"

"When he absorbed all of the power of the Multitude he vanished for a while because he wasn't sure how to control his new energy." Wesley shook his head as he thought about it. "I think it's the same now. He's adjusting to the surge of energy at his disposal. If he tried to put a little into his body he might get the amount wrong and cause problems. That's all an educated guess mind you."

"Your educated guess is better than ours." Janeway laughed. "Let's settle down for the long run then."

"We have no way of knowing when we'll arrive." Wesley apologised.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Eighteen hours later**

"Captain to the Bridge." Wesley jerked up from his sleep at the sound of Chakotay's voice. He rushed to pull on his clothes and shoes before running to the turbo lift and was soon walking onto the Bridge. The Captain was already there and she turned to look at him.

"Engineering reports that the energy fluctuations in the warp core are evening out." She told him. "It's nowhere near its normal levels but it almost seems like your friend is getting ready to withdraw whatever influence he has on it.

"Can I use your sensor console?" Wesley asked. "I've thought of a way to find out where we are."

"Sure." Janeway nodded and turned to nod to Harry Kim. Wesley jumped up behind the console and began setting up a single sensor scan just like the ones that he'd used to find the Voyager except much smaller. Just enough to find out where they were and what speed they were doing. He knew that Harry would recognise the type of signal and hopefully let it out and back in like he had with the shuttle's scans. He activated the scan and instantly it came back with a burst of information.

He let the computer analyse the information and then put it up on the screen as he explained. "When we were looking for you Harry got used to letting out a single scan and then receiving the information back without interfering. He enhanced the scan with his own power which is the only reason we had any hope of finding you but it took three hours for the computer to analyse each burst of information. I limited this one to just finding out where we are." The map formed on the screen showing them approaching the Sol system. The scan also showed that they were decelerating from what amounted to a thousand warp speed.

"That speed can't be right." Chakotay muttered. Wesley just shrugged and moved back down to the centre of the Bridge.

"Ship wide." Janeway requested. "This is the Captain speaking. We should be entering the Earth system in a few short moments. Might I suggest that any interested parties go to Nelix's bar for arrival."

"If we can see anything out of this cloud." Tom muttered before shooting Wesley an apologetic look for talking about Harry like he was a thing.

Even as Wesley smirked back he felt the lurch. They were back at sub-light speeds. "Captain, the sensors are going haywire. Sensors inside the ship keep disappearing and reappearing."

"He's coming inside." Janeway frowned at Wesley.

"We have external." Harry Kim grinned.

"On screen." Janeway ordered and suddenly the view shifted to show a large view of the Earth.

"That's times-one magnification, Captain." Kim sounded like he was going to start laughing. "Confirmed as planet Earth. There are sixteen Federation Starships in orbit, three space stations and a thousand small transports. Just what we're used to around Earth."

"Where has Harry gone?" Janeway asked looking at Wesley.

"Into his..." Wesley started before the door into the briefing room opened and Harry bounced inside.

"Did I do good?" He asked Wesley.

"Brilliantly." Wesley grinned and opened an arm and let Harry tuck himself up against him. "You all in there?"

"Yeah." Harry nodded. "Maybe they won't try to dissect me if I'm just human."

"You just went mano-a-mano with Q." Tom snorted. "I think you've got one over on them."

"I..." Harry frowned.

"Don't worry, Harry." Wesley kissed the top of his head. He turned to Janeway. "May I be the first then to welcome you back home to Earth."

"And not the last." Tuvok announced. "We're being hailed by the Star Ship _Enterprise_."

"On screen." Janeway smiled just as the screen flashed to firstly show the familiar shape of the _Enterprise_ and then to show Captain Riker.

"Is that really you, Captain Janeway?" Riker asked before spotting Wesley and Harry. "Oh... I see."

"What does he see?" Harry asked looking down at himself.

"Lieutenant Crusher. Harry." Riker greeted. "Good work."

"They found us in the Delta Quadrant." Captain Janeway announced. "And offered us a quick way home."

"Very quick." Riker snorted in amusement. "Let's get you somewhere to dock and then deal with the fall out."

"Thank you, Captain." Janeway nodded.

Riker saluted them all. "Welcome home, _Voyager_."

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**End Chapter**


	7. Epilogue The Void

Darkness in the Void

A/N: I hope everyone has enjoyed this story and my rather immature version of Harry. After all the serious Harry's I've written in my time as an author I thought it was about time to write a naïve and childish one even if I've annoyed the anti-super Harry readers out there. So this story has now come to a close after almost thirty-two months (two years and eight months) but I hope you've enjoyed it regardless of the wait.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you can all review and move on to enjoy my next story.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Chapter 7; Epilogue – The Void**

**Earth – Soon after**

Harry leant against Wesley's side under his arm and watched in silence with the rest of the crew as the ship settled down through the atmosphere. He so wanted to say something but something told him that he should let them get all starry-eyed with being home again. He didn't really see what the big deal was, true he'd learnt from Wesley that all their family and friends were on Earth and just like if Wesley had been there and Harry in some far off place, he and they would want to go to Earth. But it wasn't like Earth was all that far away from anywhere in this Galaxy and if it was such a big thing about seeing family and the like why didn't they all just get on ships and explore together?

The affect of the atmosphere faded and the big land mass that Wesley said used to be called North America appeared under the Voyager. Finally he'd had enough of silence and looked up at Wesley. "Can't everyone just look on those camera thingies?" He asked and Wesley laughed and looked down at him.

"I was wondering how long you could stop yourself from talking." Wesley muttered to him.

"Hey!" Harry complained but he wasn't sure whether Wesley was actually making fun of him or not. He frowned in confusion. "Are you making fun of me?"

Wesley laughed again and when Harry grumbled about it he leaned down and put a gentle kiss on his lips. Harry hummed happily. "It's just nice for people that have missed the ship to see it in person."

"Why don't they all get on little ships and come up into space?" Harry complained.

"Don't you like being in atmosphere, Harry?" The Captain finally turned to glance at them just as a big city appeared on the horizon and rapidly grew larger.

"Everything's so..." Harry shuddered dramatically. "Close together and cramped."

"You get claustrophobic on a planet?" Chakotay was trying not to smile.

"Wes!" Harry whined. "The human's being mean to me! Make him stop."

"Chakotay." The Captain was clearly trying not to laugh too as she admonished him before turning to Harry. "I can see why an entity like you would find a planet so restrictive and closed in."

"Yeah! What she said!" Harry grinned happily. "I feel like I have to keep ducking all the time."

"Ducking under what?" Wesley asked. Harry pointed out of the window at the clouds above them. "The clouds?" Wesley asked trying not to snigger.

"Wes!" Harry complained.

"Harry?" The Captain distracted him quickly. "If you were in your real, uncompressed form, in the atmosphere how much space would you take up?"

"Right now?" Harry looked excited as she showed interest in him. She nodded. He frowned as he thought about it. "I wouldn't fit." He declared in the end.

"You're bigger than the planet?" Tom Paris asked as he glanced around.

"No." Harry grumbled before looking contemplative.

"Harry, don't go working out how many suns you'd have to destroy to be bigger than the planet." Wesley interrupted him. Harry pouted at him but turned to look at the pilot.

He held out his hands wide. "Whole Earth." He told him before putting two fingers just slightly apart. "Atmosphere around planet." He put his fingers together. "Iddy-bitty people on planet."

"We're just little play-things to you aren't we?" Tom asked in amusement and Harry gave him a funny look.

"You're not my play thing." Harry shook his head before pointing at Wesley right next to him. "Wes is though." He looked up as Wesley choked and saw that he'd gone bright red in embarrassment. "Was that something I shouldn't have said?" He asked innocently as Wesley turned to hide his face in Harry's hair. Harry grinned at the attention.

"Here we go, Captain." Tom announced and Harry looked up at the buildings and sky scrapers and the bay shooting passed below them.

"Put us as low as you can, Tom." She announced. "Let's show them the ship they've been missing."

The ground rushed up and the big red bridge in their way came level with them. Harry looked at Wesley. "Isn't it a bit daft to get home and then run into a bridge?" Harry asked.

"He'll go over it, Harry." Wesley smiled at him, not making fun for a change.

"I could move it if he'd like." Harry offered. "Would that be easier?"

"No, Harry. Leave it where it is." The Captain told him. "Most of our families and friends are on the bridge."

"Oh!" Harry nodded happily and a few seconds later the bridge shot passed underneath them and Harry twisted his head to try to see all the people that were supposedly watching them. "I think we went a little fast to see them."

"It's more to let them see us, Harry." The Captain told him before turning to Tom. "Fly us around the city for fifteen minutes and then land us at the designated coordinates. Give our families time to move to Headquarters to watch us land."

"Yes, ma'am!" Tom announced happily.

"I could move them to headquarters if you'd like." Harry offered.

"Harry, you don't have to try to find something useful to do." Wesley looked down at him warmly. "You've done enough to help them. Let them do this on their own. It's their homecoming, they want to do it."

"He's right, Harry." The Captain nodded. "This crew owes you and Lieutenant Crusher a massive debt and you'll always be welcome with us no matter where we are."

"So I don't have to sneak onboard?" Harry asked happily.

"No." She laughed. "No more sneaking."

"Until they want to dissect me again." Harry grumbled and hugged Wesley closer to him. Wesley shifted to stand behind him and hugged him around the waist before Harry could ask him where he was going.

"Nobody's going to dissect you, Harry." Wesley muttered to him.

"Of course not. They couldn't if they wanted to." Harry nodded. "But I bet they still want to."

"Well you've done the Federation a great favour, Harry." The Captain pointed out. "I doubt they'll be wanting to offend you now. Particularly since you're a fellow explorer and our greatest asset in reaching far off places in this Galaxy."

"That sounds fun." Harry nodded. "Can we take this ship? She's pretty."

"That she is." The Captain nodded with pride. "But she's been through a lot in the last five years."

"Oh! Can we get a bigger one then?" Harry asked excitedly making everyone laugh.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Three days later**

"Wes?" Harry asked as he leaned over from his big comfy chair towards where Wesley was sitting in the chair next to him. There were another thirteen humans around the table including the scientist man that was Wesley's boss. Also Wesley's mum was there and that had been fun to tease Wesley about their fun together in front of his mother, up until Wesley had pleaded with him to stop.

There were several Admirals around the table which, according to Wesley, were the bosses, one of which was Tom Paris' father.

"I know, you're bored." Wesley whispered back. "The meeting..."

"Lieutenant?" Admiral Paris interrupted Wesley seeing him distracted. "Are we boring you?"

"No, Sir." Wesley shook his head quickly.

"Wes seems to be able to put up with all this talking. You're not boring him." Harry shrugged. "You're boring me though. Can't we do something else now? We've been talking for hours."

"We've been talking for forty-five minutes, Harry." Captain Janeway laughed from the other side of the table.

"Fine! Almost an hour!" Harry complained. "It's boring. What are we even talking about?"

"We've got rather a lot to go over, Mr..." The woman wearing a gold admiral's uniform trailed off. "What is your surname?"

"Don't remember." Harry shrugged. "Why do I need one?"

"So you can't be confused with another Harry." Captain Janeway explained patiently. "Like Ensign Kim for example."

"But he's not made of Dark Matter." Harry frowned. "How could you confuse me with him? He's really _really_ small and fleshy."

"Could we possibly get back on track?" Admiral Paris sighed. "We need to discuss matters so we can move on."

"But you're going to tell the rest of them what to do in the end so why do they need to talk about it in the first place?" Harry complained.

"He might value our opinions." Captain Janeway tried to explain.

"And I'm not an expert in Dark Matter." Admiral Paris pointed out. "I need to know the opinions of experts like Lieutenant Crusher and Commander Peel."

"They're experts?" Harry looked sideways at Wesley. "Really?"

"Not really, Harry." Wesley laughed a little. "But compared to everyone else on the planet we know more about you."

"He doesn't know much about me." Harry complained, looking for a moment at Wesley's scientist boss. "But if we have to keep talking can't we go somewhere more interesting to talk about it?"

"Like where?" Captain Janeway asked with a quick look at the female Admiral who'd been about to interrupt. "He's easier to get along with if you answer his questions first. Once he's happy he's much more forthcoming with useful information."

"Hey!" Harry whined to Wesley. "Was that mean?"

"No, Harry." Wesley laughed before shooting the Captain a look.

"You're lying." Harry grumbled. "That _was_ mean."

"We should do this meeting here and with no more interruptions we can be done before supper." Admiral Paris interrupted yet again.

"Wesley? How long is it until supper?" Harry asked his friend.

"About three hours." Wesley sighed.

"Wes!" Harry whined.

"Look at it this way, Harry." Wesley sighed. "If we get the bulk of what needs to be talked about out of the way we don't have to have so many long meetings again and they can be happier with you hanging around without wanting to 'dissect' you."

"Then can we go to a beach?" Harry begged. Wesley laughed but nodded. "Can Tom and Harry come too? I like them, they're fun."

"I'm not so sure if Tom can be spared right now, Harry." Captain Janeway shot a glance at Admiral Paris.

"Why not?" Harry complained.

"There are hearings he has to go through to do with his previous convictions." The Admiral told him.

"Can't he still come to the beach though?" Harry whined.

"The hearings are to decide if he is a flight risk." The other male Admiral told him with a placating look.

"Flight? Since when can Tom fly?" Harry looked to Wesley.

"He means run away." Wesley explained. "He's got a full hearing in a month's time and until then he's not allowed to leave. Until they decide he's not going to run away before the main hearing he has to stay in the city."

"But where's he going to run to?" Harry complained. "Please!" He begged Tom's father. "I'm bored and Tom's fun!"

"Maybe this meeting would progress faster without so many interruptions." The woman Admiral glanced around the room. "I think we can leave aside matters requiring our guest for another time. Perhaps we can permit Mr. Paris an afternoon to keep our guest busy under the supervision of Ensign Kim and Lieutenant Crusher."

"I'll watch him too!" Harry declared happily. "He can't run away from me! Come on Wesley, let's go find them!"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

**Six months later**

Harry watched from under Wesley's arm as the Enterprise finished her turn and the ship that Wesley and Captain Janeway had been going on about for months appeared on the large screen. "It looks weird." Harry told Wesley.

"It's not the first time you've seen an image of her. You've seen drawings and pictures." Wesley pointed out.

"Yeah but they were all flat and stuff." Harry told the taller boy as if it was obvious. "And he feels weird too."

"How so?" Captain Janeway asked.

"I don't know." Harry whined and rubbed his side into Wesley's warmth. "He's more alive."

"Is some of you out there?" Wesley asked him softly. Harry looked up and nodded quickly.

"Just a little bit." Harry made a gesture with his hand, his thumb and index finger close together. He turned back to the screen as the Enterprise settled down just ahead of the waiting ship. The ship was being held in place by four little things which were giving off energy but the ship was only giving off a little. He could feel the energy cushioned between the little buoy things and the big ship.

"He's bigger than the Voyager." Harry told Wesley and the Captain.

"By about fifty percent by mass." The Captain nodded. "But from top to bottom and bow to stern she's twice the size."

"He?" Wesley asked.

"What? Is that wrong?" Harry asked.

"A bit unconventional." The Captain laughed.

"But he feels like a he." Harry muttered just as Riker joined them.

"What were you saying?" Riker asked Janeway.

"We've just come to the decision that it's a he." Janeway told Riker who smile and laughed a little.

"Are you making fun of me?" Harry asked them all making Janeway laugh a little too. "Mean." Harry snuggled into Wesley's side a little more. "What's he called?" He asked as he turned back to the view. The ship was strange looking as far as the other ships were concerned. He kind of reminded Harry of a rebellious cousin in a family of upstanding citizens. The normal round disc design had been elongated and it was much larger at the rear but the warp nacelles were completely strang, they seemed to loop around the ship vertically.

"She's designed in every way with you in mind." Janeway told him.

"The space between the looped nacelles and the main ship allows you to take form around the ship to protect us but leave the nacelles on the outside. A complete array of sensors, shields and weapons are encased in that nacelle array." Wesley told him. "So even when you're protecting us we can still see out past you, shield us and you and fire on whatever we want."

"Won't the pretty bits get hurt if they get shot at?" Harry asked.

"Localised shielding around each section means you can lash out through them to block shots and accidentally drain shields without taking the shields down across the entire array and the same applies on the main section of the ship." Wesley told him. "And the shields on the nacelle array are better designed to be rapidly drained like that and then come back online once you pull away."

"I like him." Harry announced.

"Well in two months her… sorry, his trials will be finished and we'll be taking him to the edge of the alpha quadrant for a warm up and then once the crew has been finalised we'll be off to the Delta Quadrant again." Janeway told him.

"If you'll take us, Harry." Wesley requested. Harry looked up at him and knew he really didn't mind just as long as he was with Wesley. Harry nodded and Wesley leaned down quickly and kissed him gently.

Harry turned back to the screen and the ship, the USS Void, in honour of him according to Wesley, and then grinned up at Wesley getting a little groan from him. "Can we go play with him then?"

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX

The End


End file.
